Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

Only dynamic Christian faith and Action Can Occupy theVacuum left by bankrupt HumanismBankrupt Humanismand Vital ChristianityH. EVAN RUNNER, TH. D.Since the renaissance, the faith of humanism hasoccupied the commanding position in Western life andthought. It has largely determined the structure andnature of our institutions, of how we live and thinktogether in communities. But today humanism is virtuallybankrupt.Things appear to have arrived at some sort of astandstill, and men flounder helplessly about. For sometime now, in the world of the theatre, of politics, ofeducation, of the arts, the words heard most frequentlyare: crisis, malaise, loss of meaning, lack of direction. Injust about every sphere of life one can hear the questionrepeatedly being asked, "Where do we go from here?"But an answer is not forthcoming."As a result of the collapse of the humanistic faiththere is at the moment no distinctive "faith" possessingsufficient historical power to give drive and direction toour civilization. A vacuum has arisen in the Westernworld—a vacuum of conviction as to the way to meaning.The noticeable flight to Hindu and Buddhist ways ofthinking and to nihilism constitutes ample evidence of theexistence of this vacuum.Humanism began with the assertion that man is Lordin the world. This assertion did not carry the scripturalmeaning of the central position of man in the cosmos (e.g.Psalm 8) under the sovereign rule of God. On the contrary,it was a very straightforward assertion of theultimate lordship of man. Man is cock-o'-the-walk.The absolute freedom of man, of the human spirit, hasalways been the cry of humanism.Christianity, on the other hand, repudiates thehumanistic concept of freedom. From a Christianviewpoint freedom is not freedom from the Divine morallaw. Man is subject to the divine law-order—the law putinto the cosmos by God when He called it into being.Thus, man was created to rely upon, and to be directed by,the Word of God.(The author is Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College.His best known books are "The Relation of the Bible toLearning," "Scriptural Religion" and "Political Task.")We find ourselves at one of the historic turningpoints of mankind's journey through time.Today, in our Western world, there will either be aquickening of Christian faith to sense the religious unity ofman's life in the world, or there will follow the lastremaining steps, almost imperceptible in their advance, toa thoroughly secular way of life in which there is no placefor the Good Shepherd's voice.It is not possible in the twentieth century forChristians to make a good confession only within thesecure shadows of the institutional church. There is moreto Christianity than giving our assent to this or that, moreor less orderly body of theological judgments. To beChristian is to live whole human lives by the light of God'sWord and with the aid of His Spirit.Such vital Christian faith and life exhibiting themighty power of God in human affairs can and mustoccupy the vacuum in the human spirit left by the collapseof humanism.Christian CynosureA LAYMANSPEAKS"The trend today is to lose men in methods. Godwants men, not methods. Men are God's methods. He islooking for better men, not better methods. The Churchdoesn't need new things, novel things, organizations, butmen whom the Holy Ghost can use; otherwise, all isconfusion. Preaching (or teaching) is not the performanceof an hour. It is the outflow of the Holy Spirit in the life ofthe preacher."From the pen of:The late H. EARL EAVEYAt the time of writing:Bank PresidentPresident of Wholesale-Retail Food ChainMember of Board of Trustees, Moody Bible InstituteJUNE 16, 1971 7