The roots of humanism lie in ancient wisdom literature, which reflected on justice, fate and the life well-lived. The Renaissance Humanists rediscovered that literature and advocated for the values of human life, especially clear thought, eloquence, and civic engagement. In the early twentieth century a group of Unitarian ministers advocated a liberal Christianity without a deity as the natural next stage of human evolution, and they claimed the name ‘humanism’ for their movement; but a century of wars and ongoing crises have undermined their confident dream of Progress. In the twenty-first century a new humanism integrates biology and behavioral science into a more pragmatic appraisal of the possibilities and hopes of human life. How have these various humanisms addressed the perennial concerns of human life: love, meaning, morality, work, and death? What is humanism now? How will humanism evolve to address the challenges of our stone-age minds in a technological age?
I Before We Except Overseas – Tracing The Roots Of Our Multi-Century Identity Crisis
Most cultures of European descent cultivate individual identity more than other cultures of the world. We have to go back 60, or 100, or perhaps 300 years to find the roots of our contemporary debates over the role of identity in our society. One intriguing theory is that this focus on individual identity has been intentional and has a distinct purpose. This talk will look at some theories that help explain how we have ended up with increasingly destabilizing disagreements about culture and politics in North America and Europe.
The Transcendentalist critique of historical Christianity created a rift in the Unitarian church between traditional-minded Unitarian Christians and more radical Free Religionists who felt that the church should embrace a more universal form of religion. Although the National Conference of Unitarian Churches was founded in 1865, it took nearly 30 years for the conference participants to reach consensus on a statement that defined what it meant to be a Unitarian. Since we are living through another period where there is a lack of consensus on what Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism are all about, we will revisit this earlier conflict to see what lessons it holds for us today.
Speaker: A lifelong UU, Kevin McCulloch holds a Master’s of Theological Studies from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where he studied American religious history. He most recently taught Unitarian Universalist history as a member of the adult religious education committee at All Souls Church Unitarian in Washington, DC.
Topic: “Thoughts Are Free,” from a 500 year old German Folk Song. Bob will talk about how free thought and free expression can be instruments of positive change, whether for major political reasons or religious thought.
Bob grew up in New Jersey and spent his career in the insurance business and graduated from Farleigh Dickinson University . He later attended Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church in Hayward, and became a UU in 2001. “I was always a UU, but didn’t know it ‘til then.
Bob has led services at Starr King and about 6 or 7 churches in Northern
California. Bob is a folk music buff, and he feels that carrying on the folk tradition is one of his callings, He has had a long history of supporting liberal causes from his early 20’s and ongoing. Civil Rights have been a passion with Bob since his teenage years. He was a founder and first president of the West Essex (NJ) Human Relations Council, and Chairperson of the Caldwell (NJ) Board of Health.