18 - Whistling in the Humanitarian Wind

Summary

After about 1660 much English-speaking Protestant Christianity transformed itself, not least among the élites, into first Unitarianism (especially in what would become the United States), then into an increasingly godless moralism – and even among the godly morality was increasingly identified as the essence of religion. The push towards seeing philanthropy as the best religion-substitute began in earnest with the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). However, philanthropy seemed to require a revised philosophical foundation if it was no longer to be dependent on religion; that is, normally on the worship of a voluntarist and demanding God. And changes of religious belief will entail changes in attitudes to the person.