Postmodern Humanism as Challenge to the Christian Education

 The XX century, in the Western countries, offered a profusion of conceptions, frequently similar in the tension they generate, but almost never exempt from strong ideological premises, and most of all inconclusive and discordant in their practical applications. The beginning of the new Millennium, almost as a reaction, has developed an utopia of a new, so called, postmodern humanism. These conceptions are not antireligious, but rather postsecular. They represent a considerable challenge to the Christian Churches’ educational tradition, that in turn are convinced to possess (as a monopoly?) the universality of the symbolic goods. It is a challenge on the ground of values and ultimate goals (problem of the ethical and religious pluralism, freedom of religion and belief, new paradigm of the relationship science-faith), but also a challenge on the field of educational procedures and institutional frameworks (conflict between public and private, relevance of the media pervasiveness, primacy of the instrumental knowhow over the humanistic one, the cultural generational gap, etc…). Among the conditions to confront this educational challenge in a correct manner, the article strongly suggests, in order to handle the new complexity of the reality, to adopt a strategy of graduality, to reinstate at the centre of one’s thought and life the formation of an ethic of responsibility.