Making the Manifesto: The Birth of Religious Humanism.

by William F. Schulz (Boston, MA: Skinner House Books, 2002); 176 pp.; indexed; $18.00 paper.

Because Making the Manifesto is an outgrowth of William Schulz's 1974 Meadville Lombard Theological School doctoral dissertation, it benefits from research begun while six of the original signers of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto were still alive. In particular, the late Edwin H. Wilson was interviewed while working on his firsthand account, The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto, published posthumously in 1995 by Humanist Press. Making the Manifesto also benefits from Schulz's experience as a leading Unitarian Universalist (having served as president of the UUA from 1985 to 1993); a leading humanist (being one of the original signers of Humanist Manifesto II and the American Humanist Association's 2000 Humanist of the Year); and a leading advocate of human rights (currently the executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A).

From these perspectives, Schulz capably tells the story of the birth of modern humanism and the writing of Humanist Manifesto I. He reveals the influence on humanism of such philosophical streams of thought as pragmatism and critical realism; such intellectual traditions as Enlightenment deism and nineteenth-century free-thought; the religious controversies surrounding the higher criticism and modernism; scientific developments such as Darwinism; and the cultural impact of American capitalism, technological progress, World War I, and the Great Depression.

There is, of course, a richness in this approach that allows for important nuance and detail, as well as critical analysis. Yet, despite it all, Making the Manifesto cannot escape being what it is: a Unitarian Universalist book. It thus presents humanism--religious humanism--as essentially a subset of UUism. Schulz believes religious humanism to be a movement born within the cradle of UUism that failed to thrive outside it and therefore has returned to it.

But this view ignores the full cultural influence not only of such non-church organizations as the American Humanist Association but also such non-UU institutions of religious humanism as Ethical Culture and Humanistic Judaism. And that's only in the United States. Humanists worldwide, as represented by the fifty-year-old International Humanist and Ethical Union, number in the millions and play significant roles in numerous countries, as well as in the United Nations.

Still, Schulz offers careful scholarship, enlightening history, and an important perspective that should prove of value to humanists of all stripes who care about the history of their ideals and of the organizations that continue to further them.

Fred Edwords is the editorial director of the American Humanist Association.