Rethinking "Christian Humanism"

“Christian Humanism!” Paul Oskar Kristeller, one of the founders of the Renaissance Society of America, was cool to the use of this phrase. He liked to keep the concept of Renaissance humanism simple and unencumbered by ideological or speculative considerations. He pointed out the obvious fact that all humanists during the Renaissance were Christians. Yet Kristeller did admit that the term might be used to define a subtype consisting of “those scholars who explicitly discussed religious or theological problems in all or some of their writings.” 1 He still construed the term narrowly, excluding professional theologians like Aquinas or Luther but including not only Erasmus, Bude, More, and Hooker but also Calvin, Melanchthon, and many post-Reformation Jesuits. Yet Kristeller’s definition is too cautious. This essay will assume that “Christian humanists” not only discussed religious or theological issues but also explicitly made a connection between their humanistic teaching and scholarship on classical languages and literature, on the one hand, and on the other hand, their study of ancient Christianity, including the Bible and the Church Fathers. Even more important, they associated their scholarly work (classical as well as biblical and patristic) with a determination to bring about a spiritual renewal and institutional reform of Christian society. That connection between their scholarly efforts and their longing for spiritual and institutional renewal is the specific characteristic that distinguishes “Christian humanists” as a group from other humanists who just happened to be religious.