A Manifesto for Christian Humanism, with Anne Snyder

This is a turbulent time for American democracy. Years, perhaps decades, of social change is manifesting in the form of distrust, violence, chaos, fear, loneliness, and despair.

But Conversing, along with Comment magazine, is about hope, healing, and hospitality.

For this special 200th episode of Conversing, Mark Labberton invites Anne Snyder (Editor-in-Chief, Comment magazine) for a close reading and discussion of the 2025 Comment Manifesto, a hopeful new document offering a vision of Christian Humanism for this era.

Together they discuss:

The meaning and intent behind a new Comment magazine Manifesto for Christian humanism

The Incarnation of Christ for what it means to be human

Hospitality in an era of exclusion

Healthy institutions and the importance of communal agency

Individualism vs communitarianism

Learning to perceive the world in fresh, surprising ways

About the Comment Manifesto

To read the Manifesto in its entirety, visit comment.org/manifesto/, or scroll below.

To watch a reading of selections from the Comment Manifesto, click here.

About Anne Snyder

Anne Snyder is the Editor-in-Chief of Comment magazine, which is a core publication of Cardus, a think tank devoted to renewing North American social architecture, rooted in two thousand years of Christian social thought. Visit https://comment.org/ for more information.

For years, Anne has been engaged in concerns for the social architecture of the world. That is, the way that our practices of social engagement, life, conversation, discussion, debate, and difference can all be held in the right kind of ways for the sake of the thriving of people, individuals, communities, and our nation at large.

Anne also oversees our Comment’s partner project, Breaking Ground, and is the host of The Whole Person Revolution podcast and co-editor of Breaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year (2022).

Show Notes

• Giving thanks for 200 episodes of Conversing!
• 2000 years of Christian thought to the public square
• James K.A. Smith, the former editor of Comment Magazine
• Seeking a positive moral vision
• A turbulent moment for democracy
• MANIFESTO SECTION 1 “We are Christian humanists…”
• What it means to be human in our age—our infinite dignity, relationship to the earth, and woundedness
• The significance of Jesus Christ for what it means to be human
• What the Incarnation of Christ means for our world
• “So many people we know and love and respect feel ecclesially homeless, obviously politically homeless.”
• MANIFESTO SECTION 2 “We believe it’s time to build…”
• Agency
• Called to a co-creative project
• Productive and constructive
• “Contributing the true and good and beautiful in a messy world.”
• MANIFESTO SECTION 3 “We believe in institutions…”
• Collective, common, and communal
• Institutions, as part of the social architecture of our world, can be extraordinarily positive.
• “I always get asked, ‘Why do you believe in institutions? Why? You don’t need to! They’re gone! They’re dead!’”
• “Healthy institutions are channels within which you can actually realize your sense of agency in a way that might be more moving than you ever would have imagined just by yourself.”
• Yuval Levin’s take on community (paraphrased): “All