Something needed to change to correct that. What they needed was people who were sensitive to all those aspects of life, who were willing to listen to the experience and wisdom of others, and people who were willing to teach others. It is in this sense, with the concern for human existence and for the things that affect human life, that the biblical perspectives can be humanistic. Now, as far as the relation between humanism and secularism and atheism, this is where the confusion occurs. But not all humanism is secularism .
Humanism can be sacral as well as secular .
There is always a danger in humanism that the human can overshadow the divine, that human endeavor and achievement can be seen as the goal of human existence, and therefore the criteria of truth. But that does not come because it is humanistic. It comes because a secularist or an atheist, or even a Christian who does not really understand the heart of the Faith, eliminates God from consideration and uses it that way. But when a Christian or a theist who assumes God at work in human affairs from the beginning uses humanism, then it becomes a sacral humanism that sees human life operating under the sacred canopy of God as Creator. We could even track here the humanistic perspectives of Wesley that contrast so readily with his opponents, especially in the dimension of human freedom and the responsibility to live out a holiness of heart in life.