Humanism vs. Jesus

“The danger for Christianity at present is that it should become secularized, worldly, reduced to a kind of socialist humanism.This is not what the world needs; and, if Christians were reduced to offering the world only this humanism, they would soon

be set aside and rightly so, since there have always been socialists, teachers of morality, and organizers of society: they have rendered service, but they have never saved anyone. The world today does not need greater social organization but a Savior: man today needs someone who will answer the fundamental problems of his existence, which no social structure has ever been able to answer.”

While this is an apt description of today, this quote was actually written about 50 years ago by Jean Danielou. Fifty years after it was first written, we find it perhaps more relevant than ever before.

With all of the talk of politics these last months, along with our focus on human leaders and human institutions, we definitely need to be reminded that what the world needs today is a Savior.

Who we need is Jesus.

Certainly we can have opinions on matters, but let us not allow our opinions on worldly systems, institutions, or people to somehow attempt to merge Christianity into some form of humanism. Instead, as Christians, let us keep our main focus in all of our discussions centered on the fact that Jesus is more than a teacher of morality and more than an organizer of society. He is the Savior of the world.