Word: humanities
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Christian version, all of these views present a God whose substance is so tenuous and vague that, like certain very rare gases, it becomes highly enigmatic to say that He is "there" at all. Such a being certainly seems incapable of having much more of an effect on human life than the normal inhalation of argon. Most of these notions come close enough to Tillich's to be intellectually "shoe," however, and their conformity to the negative doctrines of some of the authorized Judeo-Christian mystics gives them a certain eccentrically orthodox sanction that allows the West's religious tradition...
...persuade the pious to abandon their beliefs. Incredibly enough, well over a third of those who either flatly reject all belief in God or else hold that there are no adequate grounds for deciding the question, nevertheless think that "on the whole, the Church stands for the best in human life," though it suffers from certain minor human short-comings! And a substantial majority, though naturally denying the orthodox doctrine of the Incarnation, still feel that "Christ should be regarded...as a very great prophet or teacher." "Whether or not he lived, many of his teachings are well worthwhile...
That the questions are sweeping does not make them any the less real: If the Biblical mythology has crumbled for most of the population, what heroic archetypes are left to summon men to greatness? are there to be no images of human possibility commonly available to men beyond the mediocre range afforded by popular literature and the mass media? If the light of the Godhead has gone out, what is to save us from an everlasting night of spiritual squalor, timidity, and sloth? What remains to command human loyalty and aspiration beyond the interests of one's particular generation...
...omnipotent Will, how can man be awakened to the enormous task that has therefore devolved upon him of infusing both these things with his own will, of becoming his own Law-Giver and Providence, bearing absolute freedom and responsibility for all that occurs? or is the whole process of human life now to be surrendered to blind chance and accident, habit, stupidity, and chaos?--or worse still, allowed to lapse into the control of elites with stunted souls who can count on the despairing resignation of everyone else to manipulate or intimidate the species into a cheerful, comfortable serfdom...
...distinguished theologians themselves sometimes forget, that these are only metaphors. Only religious discourse has evolved expressions powerful enough to convey how intense political concerns have become today because the latter alone deals meaningfully today with what once the former alone could speak of: that is, the 'salvation' of the human 'soul...