Humanism is a way to live, to give meaning to life and to find an understanding of our place in society and, indeed, the universe.
Jim Herrick, Humanism: an Introduction (2003)
Jim Herrick was a writer and activist whose work spanned the humanist movement – with a particular focus on telling its story. A longtime editor of New Humanist magazine, Herrick also authored a number of major works on the history of humanism and freethought, as well as being an active member of Humanists UK, the Gay Humanist Group (now LGBT Humanists), Humanists International, and the Rationalist Press Association. In recognition of his myriad contributions, he received the Distinguished Service to Humanism Award in 1996.
Humanism is not to be defined merely in opposition to religion, rather it is a response to the natural world, to the nature of humankind, to a cultural and historical tradition, to an emotional and intellectual understanding of humanity.
Jim Herrick, Humanism: an Introduction (2003)
Jim Herrick was born in 1944. He studied History and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then worked as a school teacher for seven years, but his real passion was humanism and its history. Herrick retained a lifelong love of the arts, writing movingly about the value of art to the humanist. In the ‘questioning, questing’ philosophy of humanism, Herrick saw art and literature as providing us the ‘jigsaw pieces to sort out our own puzzlement’.
His many books included his history of humanist centre Conway Hall, Aspiring to the Truth: Two Hundred Years of the South Place Ethical Society (2016); Humanism: An Introduction (2003); Humanist Anthology: From Confucius to David Attenborough (1995); Against the Faith: Some Deists, Skeptics and Atheists (1985); and Vision and Realism: A Hundred Years of The Freethinker (1982). He also wrote the history of the Humanist Housing Association, bringing to life the story of humanists who came together in the period following the war to help non-religious people at risk of homelessness.
From 1984 to 2002 he was the editor of New Humanist and subsequently became the journal’s literary editor until his retirement in 2005. He was also editor of International Humanist News, published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (now Humanists International), from which he received the Distinguished Service to Humanism Award in 1996. From January 1977 until 1981, Herrick edited The Freethinker, the oldest freethought magazine in the UK.
As well as being a devoted member of Humanists UK, Jim Herrick was among the early members of Gay Humanist Group, now known as LGBT Humanists, and also served as its Chair. He was a Board member of the Rationalist Press Association and a former vice president of the National Secular Society.
Jim Herrick died on 20 June 2023.
Jim Herrick was a stalwart of the humanist movement for many decades, and contributed much to its literature. As well as his histories and explainers, he wrote and spoke with great feeling about what the humanities meant for the humanist, reserving special admiration for the works of Thomas Hardy and George Eliot. Fellow humanist and secularist Denis Cobell testified to his character and influence, saying of Herrick:
Jim was not a self-publicist and was quietly spoken at meetings when matters of dispute arose. He displayed patience, kindness and objectivity. He was committed to what was once known as “the best of causes” and always went well beyond his duty.
Denis Cobell, quoted in ‘‘There is nothing easy or empty about humanity and reason’: in memoriam Jim Herrick (1944–2023)‘ by Bob Forder
Humanists UK mourns Jim Herrick (1944-2023) | Humanists UK
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