Humanism and Religion

Jens Zimmermann was born and raised in Germany. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He currently occupies the position of Canada Research Chair in Interpretation, Religion and Culture, and is Professor of English at Trinity Western University (TWU) in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. Zimmermann has published eight previous books in the areas of theology, philosophy, and literary theory. He is board member of the International Bonhoeffer Society (English Language Section), and co-editor of the IBI (International Bonhoeffer Interpretation) series. With two other colleagues, he also runs the Religion, Culture and Conflict group at TWU, shich organizes inter-faith conferences. The group recently published Politics and the Religious Imagination (Routledge 2010).

• Introduction ; 1. Western Culture after Christendom ; 2. The Theological Origins of Humanism ; 3. Humanism from Vico to Dilthey ; 4. Martin Heidegger's Post-Metaphysical Hyper-Humanism ; 5. Levinas's Humanism of the Other ; 6. Hans-Georg Gadamer's Hermeneutic Humanism ; 7. Christian Responses: Maurice Blondel and Dietrich Bonhoeffer ; 8. Toward a Religious Humanism?

The critical retrieval of religious, theological and specifically Christian humanism, which has been gathering momentum during the past decade, has received a major boost with the publication of these two fine studies by Jens Zimmermann ... Each volume can stand on its own, but they overlap and complement each other in addressing the cultural crisis that faces Western society with secularism in confusion and religious fundamentalism rampant