the brights (NY times op-ed)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:

> JSTOR has instances of "secular humanism" from the 1938 and 1939, and
> one for "secular humanist" from 1935. But these citations all suggest
> a purely compositional reading of the phrase -- as, e.g., in "the
> love of man for God, foreign alike to Greek moral philososphy and the
> secular humanism of the present day." I feel sure that that David is
> right as regards the polemical use of the phrase to signify what MW
> defines as " humanistic philosophy viewed as a nontheistic religion
> antagonistic to traditional religion." That was a much later
> invention, though you'd need a lot of context to sort out just when

The earliest citation that has been found, as far as I know, is from
William G. Peck, The Social Implications of the Oxford Movement (1933),
but this is what Geoffrey calls a "compositional" usage.  The term in its
"polemical" usage traces to Justice Hugo Black's opinion in the U.S.
Supreme Court case, Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), in which Black wrote:
"Among religions in this country, however, which do not teach what
would generally be considered belief in the existence of God are Buddhism,
Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others."  Black picked this
up from an amicus curiae brief in the case by Columbia religion professor
Joseph L. Blau.

Fred Shapiro


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