Christianity: Humanism should come before theology (Jesus, moral, churches, experience)

[angellous_evangellous]

I've said before that I think that Christianity is ethically bankrupt. The solution to this problem I think is to place humanism before Christian theology and morality in our thinking and especially our ethics (thinking - or unfortunately the lack of it - determines ethics).

A solid grounding in humanistic ideas is the foundation of ethics. If Christian pastors and theologians (and many of them do...) had a firm grounding in ideas such as human dignity, personal freedoms, responsibility, human worth, and integrity, we'd have less emphasis on bald meaningless proseltyzing which really does not add to the human experience and more on the enrichment and fullness of life.

[Terrywoodenpic]

My contact with Anglican Ministers of both sexes suggests that we see this understanding very clearly in Jesus message.
The Anglican message is very much in the real world... though we have many academics very strong in theology... It is worship and human needs that are mostly emphasised in the churches work.

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by Terrywoodenpic

My contact with Anglican Ministers of both sexes suggests that we see this understanding very clearly in Jesus message.

Except, possibly, the injunction against divorce. Divorce is a basic human right which Jesus denies, and Christians have historically (and contemporarily) applied this at great human cost.