The document discusses the history and challenges of humanism and its relationship with the church. It notes that in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church dominated all aspects of society and suppressed scientific knowledge and rational thinking. The first humanists opposed this and believed freedom, equality, and rational thinking would flourish. While humanism emphasized individual freedom and dignity, it challenged the church's authority by opposing tradition as a basis for morality and supporting democratic ideals over the church's monarchial system, which threatened the power and influence the church previously held in people's lives.

1. Humanism And
Challenges Faced
By The Church
Authority

2. Humanism:
■Definition:
Humanism is a progressive
philosophy of life that, without theism
or other supernatural beliefs, affirms
our ability and responsibility to lead
ethical lives of personal fulfillment
that aspires to the greater good.

3. History of
Humanism:■ The church was the universal institution, with
the Roman Catholic Church permeating every
aspect of societal life in middle ages.
■ Bible was the main source of education and
most of the people devoted their lives to the
church.
■ In addition, scientific knowledge was
considered as a threat to the church authority
so logical reasoning and thinking were
suppressed by the Church.

4. Continued…
■ The first humanists were against this
church rule which they believed was
suppressing the development and
advancement in all scopes of the life.
■ They felt that scientific knowledge coupled
with freedom, equality and rational thinking
would be the flourishing component of the
world.

5. Humanism Movement:
■ Humanism was a European and Cultural
Movement which began in Florence, Italy in
last decades of 14th Century, rose to
prominence in 15th Century and spread
through out the rest of Europe in 16th
Century.
■ The term ‘Humanism’ itself coined in much
later, in 19th Century, by German educator
F.J.Niethammar to describe a study of
science and engineering.

6. Beliefs in Humanistic
Society:
■ Humanists belief that this is the only life of
which we have certain knowledge and that
we owe it to ourselves and others to make it
the best life possible for ourselves and all
with whom we share this fragile planet.
■ They believe that when people are free to
think for themselves, using reason and
knowledge as their tools, they are best able
to solve this world’s problems.

7. Categories of Humanism:
■ In Ethics, it affirms the dignity and worth of
all people and their ability to determine right
and wrong purely by appeal to universal
human qualities, especially rationality, and
considers faith an unacceptable basis for
action.
■ In Metaphysics, Humanism considers all
forms of the supernatural as myth, and
regards nature as the totality of being, and
as a constantly changing system of matter
and energy which exists independently of

8. Continued….
■ In Political Philosophy, Humanism
emphasizes individual freedom and
responsibility, human values and
compassion, and the need for tolerance and
cooperation, and it rejects authoritarian
beliefs.

9. Ideas of Humanism:
■ Skepticism
■ Individualism
■ Liberalism

10. Ideas of Humanism:
■ Skepticism is the philosophical position
that one should refrain from making truth
claims, and avoid the postulation of final
truths. This is not necessarily quite the same
as claiming that truth is impossible (which
would itself be a truth claim), but is often
also used to cover the position that there is
no such thing as certainty in human
knowledge.

11. Continued…
■ Individualism is a moral, political or social
outlook that stresses human independence and
the importance of individual self-reliance and
liberty. It opposes most external interference with
an individual's choices, whether by society, the
state or any other group or institution.
■ Liberalism includes a broad spectrum of political
philosophies that consider individual liberty to be
the most important political goal, and emphasize
individual rights and equality of opportunity.

12. Prominent Early
Humanists:
Humanists promoted human worth and
individual dignity, and believed in the practice
of the liberal arts for all classes. Some early
Humanists were;
■ The Italian poet Francesco Petrarch
■ The Dutch theologian Erasmus
■ The English philosopher Sir Thomas More

13. Early Humanist
Organization:
In the 19th and 20th Centuries,
various organizations were founded
to promote humanist principles,
including:
■The Humanistic Religious
Association
■The American Humanist Association

14. Challenges Faced By The
Church:
 Many humanists, like Erasmus, argued that the
Christianity which people experienced was
nothing at all like the Christianity experienced by
the early Christians or taught by Jesus Christ.
These scholars relied heavily upon information
gathered directly from the Bible itself and even
worked to produce improved editions of the Bible
along with translations of the early Church
Fathers, otherwise only available in Greek and
Latin.

15. Continued…
■Christian humanists challenged not
only the Catholic Church but the
authority of the Bible itself and
developed liberal Christian theology of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, stressing Jesus' humanity
and the realization of God's kingdom in
Christian community.

16. Continued…
■ It also opposed to the view that
tradition, religion or any other form of
external moral standard should be used
to limit an individual's choice of actions
which vastly challenged the church
authority as before this, the church had
a say in every aspect of the people’s
life.

17. Continued…
 Humanism was against the monarchial
system of the church and the absolute
power it had over the individuals. It opted
for democratic system where all individuals
had equal right and were a granted
freedom of speech and this largely
threatened the church authority.

18. Criticism on Humanism:
■ Humanism is no comfort to persons in a
time of crisis.
■ Animal rights activists also criticize
humanism on the grounds that it is
speciesistic.
■ As humanism promotes limited to no
religious hold on individuals, it is criticized
because it is a well-known fact that religion
grounds individuals and morality is actually
derived from religious values.

19. Continued…
■ Humanism goes side by side with
skepticism. The criticism is that skepticism is
not limited and that leads to the realization
that if we are to follow skepticism, we’ll
never know if most things are true or not.

20. The End
Thank You