History has become focused on the future-our fast-paced, global communication finds us always looking to the next horizon. But will there be a future for humanity? Possibly, but only if the Western world takes the time to understand, appreciate, and learn from its rich past.
The Future of our Past stands as a powerful thematic essay by eminent scholar H. J. Blackham, who follows the course of Western history into the post-religious present in terms of cultural inheritance and legacy. Pagan Greece, Yahweh's Judea, and Christian Rome symbolise three major movements in Western history. From the Renaissance through the Enlightenment and on into the modern industrial period, the West has taken shape in often tumultuous ways. As science, politics, and economics grew and developed, the secular would interweave and clash with, and soon break away from established universal views. What does the secular world offer us as a new vision of humanity? What hope can be found in today's many upheavals? Blackham offers valuable observations to guide us.
H. J. Blackham lives in Hereford and is the founder of the British Humanist Association, and author of The Six Existentialists, The Fable as Literature, Humanism, and Religion in a Modern Society.
580 pages
ISBN 1-57392-042-8