Love First: Toward a Christian Humanism

by Lloyd E. Sandelands

Overview

The study of man today is divided in three ways that it should not be: between the humanities and the social sciences, between natural and metaphysical philosophy, and between faith and reason. This book bridges these three divides to build toward an integrated understanding of human being that begins with the revealed truths of Christian faith. Because its humanism draws upon diverse fields of art, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and theology, the book should be of interest to scholars and students of all kinds. And because its humanism is all about us, the book should interest be of interest to anyone who happens to be human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761869528
Publisher:	Hamilton Books
Publication date:	07/12/2017
Pages:	106
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 9.11(h) x 0.32(d)

About the Author

Lloyd E. Sandelands teaches business administration and psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He studies the social and spiritual aspects of life today, especially in business. He is the author of nine books.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1: To See and to Behold
Chapter 2: Beings and Objects
Chapter 3: World of Being
Chapter 4: The Marvel of Man
Chapter 5: The Inner-I
Chapter 6: To Love and to Know
Chapter 7: To Be or Not to Be
Epilogue
Appendix: Two Illustrations of Christian Humanism

Editorial Reviews

In this simple but insightful and rich book, Lloyd Sandelands does not offer a new reading of the importance of love and its role in Christian understandings of being—and thereby relationships with others—but a concise and important recourse back to the basics of humanism and its grounding in Christian tradition.. .. Sandelands’s book, although brief, is profound. It recaptures an old spirit of Christianity that needs to be awakened in the twenty-first century: (Christian) humanism. In that awakening, joyful solidarity, the common good, and common service, united in and through love, can be manifested. After all, Jesus himself said not to love humanity in the abstract, but to “love your neighbor as yourself.” True love begins with that which is in front of you.

Catholic Social Science Review

From the moment you open this book, Lloyd Sandelands beckons us to see with fresh eyes and an open heart the power of being. Prepare to awaken to a new understanding of the potency and lived reality of Christian Humanism. This book helps us to appreciate and understand being-in-relation to God. I am deeply grateful for this new awakening and forever reminder of these possibilities for being for ourselves and for all living beings on this earth.

Jane E. Dutton

This book asks fundamental questions of what it is to be human, how we know and what should be first in life and in organizations. At its core is a humble and personal call to receive and discern real being rather than dissect and objectify from a position of distanced scientism. One may read the book as an unusually beautiful expression of personal Christian faith, as a hymn to humanity and as an erudite qualification of the “realism of loving-then-knowing”. This is where I engage the strongest, with questions of immense ethical vitality: For the purposes and people we engage in organizations, what things are first? What does it mean to put love first?

Arne Carlsen

Professor Sandelands ably draws from religious and scientific arguments as well as from personal experience to develop the implications of Christian belief on our understanding of the human condition. In lucid terms he juxtaposes the corrosive influence of scientific materialism on self-knowledge with a vision of human beings as inherently noble, spiritual and capable of reflecting the attributes of their Creator.

Jose Uribe