Everyday Humanism - Dale McGowan
10. On the Limits of Charity
Everyday Humanism - Dale McGowan
Anthony B. Pinn [+]
Rice University
Anthony B. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University. Pinn is founding director of Rice’s Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning. He is also the Director of Research for the Institute for Humanist Studies. He is the author/editor of 30 books including, African American Humanist Principles (2004); By These Hands: A Documentary History of African American Humanism (2001); The End of God Talk (2012) and Writing God’s Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist (2014). In 1999 he received the African American Humanist Award from the Council for Secular Humanism, and in 2006 he was named Harvard Humanist of the Year.
Description
This chapter explores the nature and meaning of charity, of the giving of assistance, from a humanist perspective. Drawing from recently natural disasters, it provides attention to how the centrality of human frailty within humanism offers a way of grounding the need to render assistance in ways that do not fall victim the limits of theistic compassion.