English - Writer | October 12, 1889 - May 25, 1970
As I have pointed out, it is the Christian tradition that is the most fundamental element in Western culture. It lies at the base not only of Western religion, but also of Western morals and Western social idealism.
Christopher Dawson
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For humanism also appeals to man as man. It seeks to liberate the universal qualities of human nature from the narrow limitations of blood and soil and class and to create a common language and a common culture in which men can realize their common humanity.
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The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language.
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Man can know his world without falling back on revelation; he can live his life without feeling his utter dependence on supernatural powers.
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If man limits himself to a satisfied animal existence, and asks from life only what such an existence can give, the higher values of life at once disappear.
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The present age has seen a great slump in humanist values.
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Man is a means and not an end, and he is a means to economic or political ends which are not really ends in themselves but means to other ends which in their turn are means and so ad infinitum.
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Yet humanitarianism is not a purely Christian movement any more than it is a purely humanist one.
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It is clear that this essential Christian doctrine gives a new value to human nature, to human history and to human life which is not to be found in the other great oriental religions.
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It is true that Christianity is not bound up with any particular race or culture. It is neither of the East or of the West, but has a universal mission to the human race as a whole.
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Thus Christian humanism is as indispensable to the Christian way of life as Christian ethics and a Christian sociology.
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Humanism and Divinity are as complementary to one another in theorder of culture, as are Nature and Grace in the order of being.
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