The Victory Of Humanism

Martin connects what Erik Rush calls "negrophilia" to an inversion of aesthetic sensibility that transformed Western culture over the past two centuries. His connecting of trends in fine painting, sculpture, literature, music, opera, drama, religion, even cinema, to U.S. race relations is spellbinding. 188 pp.

Significantly, the book shows why special attention to American liberal religiosity remains critical to a clear understanding of the scientific spirit in American culture.

This collection of original essays, gathered in honor of distinguished historian Ronald G. Witt, explores a range of issues of interest to scholars of Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. Contributors include Robert Black, Melissa Bullard, Anthony D'Elia, Anthony Grafton, Paul Grendler, James Hankins, John Headley, John Monfasani, and Louise Rice.

Born out of a love of language, text, classical learning, art, philosophy and philology, the Christian Humanist project lasted beyond the turmoil of sixteenth-century Europe to survive in a new form in post-Reformation thought. Jonathan Arnold here explores the finest intellects of late-Renaissance Europe, providing an essential guide to the most important scholars, priests, theologians and philosophers of the period, now collectively known as the Christian Humanists. "The Great Humanists" provides an invaluable context to the philosophical, political and spiritual state of Europe on the eve of the Reformation through inter-related biographical sketches of Erasmus, Thomas More, Marsilio Ficino, Petrarch, Johann Reuchlin, Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples and many others. The legacy of these thinkers is still relevant and widely-studied today, and this book will make invaluable reading for scholars and students of philosophy and early-modern European history.

This book deals with the impact of the Reformation debate in Germany on the most prominent intellectual movement of the time: humanism. Although it is true that humanism influenced the course of the Reformation, says Erika Rummel, the dynamics of the relationship are better described by saying that humanism was co-opted, perhaps even exploited, in the religious debate.

The author contends that the traditional views of puritan social thought have done a great injustice to the intellectual history of the 16th-century. Margo Todd reveals the puritans to be the heirs to a complex intellectual legacy.

While humanist sensibilities have played a formative role in the advancement of our species, critical attention to humanism as a field of study is a more recent development. As a system of thought that values human needs and experiences over supernatural concerns, humanism has gained greater attention amid the rapidly shifting demographics of religious communities, especially in Europe and North America. This outlook on the world has taken on global dimensions as well, with activists, artists, and thinkers forming a humanistic response not only to traditional religion, but to the pressing social and political issues of the 21st century. With in-depth, scholarly chapters, The Oxford Handbook of Humanism aims to cover the subject by analyzing its history, its philosophical development, its influence on culture, and its engagement with social and political issues. In order to expand the field beyond more Western-focused works, the Handook discusses humanism as a worldwide phenomenon, with regional surveys that explore how the concept has developed in particular contexts. The Handbook also approaches humanism as both an opponent to traditional religion as well as a philosophy that some religions have explicitly adopted. By both synthesizing the field, and discussing how it continues to grow and develop, the Handbook promises to be a landmark volume, relevant to both humanism and the rapidly changing religious landscape.