On Knud E. Løgstrup’s “Humanism and Christianity”

This article is a discussion of the article “Humanism and Christianity” (1950) by the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup. It sets the article in its intellectual context, and outlines its main arguments and central claim, which is that when humanism and Christianity are properly understood, they have a distinctive common ground in their understanding of ethics as “silent” or “unspoken”, rather than based on what people say they want or on social or religious norms. It is also shown how this piece foreshadows some key claims made in Løgstrup’s later works, including his main publication The Ethical Demand (1956).