The Mysteries of Religion: An Introduction to Philosophy through Religion

286 Pages·1986·10.69 MB·English

by  Stephen R. L. Clark

STEPHEN R.L.CLARK
The Mysteries of Religion
An Introduction to Philosophy through Religion
Stephen R. L. Clark
Basil Blackwell
© Stephen R. L. Glark 1986
First published 1986
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Clark, Stephen R. L.
The mysteries of religion: an introduction to
the philosophy of religion.
1. Religion—Philosophy
I. Title
200’. 1 BL51
ISBN 0-631-13419-0
ISBN 0-631-14295-9 Pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Clark, Stephen R. L.
The mysteries of religion.
(Philosophical Introductions)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Religion—Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series.
BL51.C555 1986 200’. 1 85-28698
ISBN 0-631-13419-0
ISBN 0-631-14295-9 (pbk.)
Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters Frimley, Surrey.
Printed in Great Britain by Page Bros (Norwich) Ltd
Contents
Series Introduction vi
William Empson: ‘Homage to the British Museum’ vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgements x
1 Introduction 1
2 The Natural History of Religion 16
3 Rituals and Rites of Passage 35
4 Words and the World 49
Matthew Arnold: ‘Revolutions’ 72
5 New Souls and the Olympians 73
John Berryman: ‘Sole watchman of the flying stars’ 93
6 Sins, Wickedness and Psychosis 94
7 Causality and Creation 122
Robert Browning: from ‘Bishop Blougram’s Apology’ 143
8 War and the Problem of Evil 144
9 Prayer, Sacrifice and Time 162
John Meade Falkner: ‘After Trinity’ 178
10 Household, Sex and Gender 180
11 Death and Immortality 196
John Donne: ‘Holy Sonnet 10’ 213
12 Religious Experience 214
Gerard Manley Hopkins: ‘As kingfishers catch fire’ 231
13 The Future of Religion 232
14 Reasons and Conclusions 246
Walter Ralegh: ‘The passionate mans Pilgrimage’ 260
Bibliography 261
Index 269
Series Introduction
This series has its origin in the conviction that the best way of
introducing beginners to philosophy is through philosophizing about
issues on which the student already has views: politics, morality,
religion or art, for instance. It is possible to identify these views and, by
asking comprehensible and obviously relevant questions, to show how
philosophy arises out of what is simply a sustained attempt to think
clearly about such issues. It then takes on its true appearance as a way
of thinking with which most people, initially, are familiar. Such an
approach is most naturally adopted in the area that has come to be
called, unhappily perhaps, practical, or applied, philosophy. So the
books in this series will cover such aspects of life as ethics, politics, the
law, religion, art and education.
It is important to note that each of the books is conceived to be an
introduction to philosophy, not merely an introduction to the philosophy
of religion, or political philosophy, or whatever. Consequently, there is
no attempt in them to introduce students simply to the range of issues
which have traditionally been included in such titles. That is inherent in
the approach that the series adopts, since if you remain true to your
intention of philosophizing about views that the beginner already has,
then it should not be assumed that you will quickly get into the
traditional and familiar questions; sometimes you will, and sometimes
you won’t.
Though the books are introductions to philosophy, each is as
seriously concerned with its subject in hand as with its philosophical
dimensions. Consequently, they may be expected to be of value to
students both of philosophy and of the discipline the philosophy is
about.
The books are introductions, not in the sense that they are easy to
understand, but in the sense that they presuppose no prior knowledge of
philosophy. So they make no attempt to engage deeply in current
controversies. On the other hand, it is an inevitable result of the
Series introduction vii
approach of the series that some at least of the books will have a
character that is entirely distinctive, and it would be dishonest to
pretend that we do not hope that they will make some contribution to
creating new perspectives in the subject.
Department of Moral Philosophy, Anthony Ellis
University of St Andrews Gordon Graham
There is a supreme God in the ethnological section;
a hollow toad shape, faced with a blank shield.
He needs his belly to include the Parthenon,
which is inserted through a hole behind.
At the navel, at the points formally stressed, at the organs of sense,
lice glue themselves, dolls, local deities,
his smooth wood creeps with all the creeds of the world.
Attending there let us absorb the cultures of nations
and dissolve into our judgement all their codes.
Then, being clogged with a natural hesitation
(People are continually asking one the way out),
let us stand here and admit that we have no road.
Being everything, let us admit that is to be something,
or give ourselves the benefit of the doubt;
let us offer our pinch of dust all to this God,
and grant his reign over the entire building.
(William Empson, ‘Homage to the British Museum’: (1955) p. 35.)
Preface
When I was first asked to write an introduction to the philosophy of
religion, my reaction was to doubt that such a thing was needed, or that
I was the right person to write it if it were. It did not take me very long
to persuade myself that there was room for a study which took its start
from ordinary experience of religion, rather than from scholastic
argument for and against the existence of God, or the meaningfulness or
otherwise (on some sophisticated theory of language) of religious
language. I thought that it might be possible to show how even very
technical questions could arise when we began to think about what went
on in religious services, or the religious life in general. I also believed
that it was time for philosophers to take a rather wider look at the field
than has been conventional. It is not enough to rake together a few
abstruse arguments about ‘the God of the Philosophers’ without
acknowledging that most ‘religious’ persons would not recognize any
such entity as the object of their devotion. Not every religious person is a
member of the Abrahamic tradition, or even a theist, but all might still
be coaxed into seeing that there are philosophical puzzles of great
intrinsic interest and possible spiritual profit.
These are things that I still believe. Unfortunately, it has also become
clear to me that an introduction to the philosophy of religion, as I
originally envisaged it, amounts to an introduction to the philosophy of
absolutely everything, and that questions were constantly presenting
themselves which lay far beyond my competence, or beyond anything
that this series could reasonably accommodate. I have, in particular,
concluded that I could not do justice to the interface between
philosophy of religion and political philosophy, and have postponed my
reasoned account of the Kingdoms of God and of this World to another
date. I have also excluded discussion of particular issues raised by
Christian Incarnational Theology - an area which I do not think
beyond the reach of rational enquiry, but which involved me in so much
subtlety and Neo-Platonic speculation as to make it inappropriate in
Preface ix
anything that purported to be an introductory volume. There are
doubtless many other omissions. I hope, however, that what follows will
be comprehensible to anyone, religious or otherwise, who is prepared to
devote a little time and effort to try and think sympathetically through
the thoughts of religious persons in all ages, and that it may serve as a
beginning.
Undergraduate students of philosophy (and some of their elders)
believe that the task of a philosopher is simply to criticize, and to find
fault with arguments even for conclusions that no-one has any serious
interest in rejecting. I do not share this view. Analytical criticism, even
destructive criticism, is often a good thing, but the real aim of
philosophy is not to destroy, but to understand and explore. I do not
think it is profitable to imagine that our predecessors, even when they
were mistaken, were fools. Nor do I think it profitable to deny ourselves
the chance of thinking through some unfamiliar hypothesis merely
because there is no conclusive proof- in advance of those explorations —
that it will be found to be true. What follows is an investigation of the
possibilities, and an attempt to sketch the metaphysical picture which,
so it seems to me, makes sense of much of our experience. Even if that
metaphysics is false, what I have written may serve as a map with which
readers can begin to explore the terrain.
My thanks go to the editors of this series, who insisted that I make
myself a little more intelligible, and to friends and colleagues over the
years who have doubted that this was possible. My thanks especially to
Dr Gillian Clark for saving me from many errors of taste and
judgement, and to Mrs Carol Cullinan for dealing on my behalf with a
recalcitrant word-processor.
University of Liverpool
Acknowledgements
The following poems or extracts from poems have been reprinted by
kind permission ofChatto & Windus: ‘Homage to the British Museum’
(p. viii), Collected Poems of William Empson; The National Trust: ‘We and
They’ (p. 12) and ‘Buddha at Kamakura’ (p. 63), The Definitive Edition
of Rudyard Kipling’s Verse; Faber & Faber and Farrar Straus Giroux, Inc.:
‘Sole Watchman of the Flying Stars’ (p. 93), by John Berryman; Faber
& Faber and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.: ‘Little Gidding’ (p. 147),
Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot; Faber & Faber and Oxford University
Press: ‘The Combat’ (p. 149) by Edwin Muir; and Miss D. E. Collins:
‘The Last Hero’ (p. 158) and ‘The Ballad of the White Horse’ (p. 160),
The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton.
1
_
Introduction
On Being Religious
People who are ‘religious’ make some effort to practise ‘a religion’. They
go regularly to some ‘place of worship’ or (at the least) feel some
connection with the usual meeting-place of those who do attend a ‘place
of worship’. They usually mark the major events of their life, and their
community’s life, by joining in a ‘religious ceremony’, and are glad that
someone professionally employed to conduct such ceremonies leads
them through to a satisfactory conclusion. Births, marriages and deaths;
midwinter festivals and spring festivals and harvest festivals; coronations
and launchings and inaugurations - all such occasions deserve notice,
and ‘the religious’ will want them to be given a sort of‘cosmic setting’.
The religious may also impose minor austerities upon themselves
(sometimes major austerities): they do not drink alcohol, or do not use a
particular range of expletives, or do not eat the flesh of particular
animals, or give up some minor indulgence during some season of the
year. Sometimes they wear distinctive clothes, and will not send their
children to schools that do not enforce the regulations to which they are
themselves accustomed.
Some of those who are thought ‘religious’ will attempt to persuade
others to join them at their place of worship. Sometimes they will rely
simply on personal influence, sometimes they may try to argue for the
truth of certain doctrines usually to be heard in their own religious
fellowship. Often they rely, for their own support and in conversation
with others, on some body of ‘religious’ or ‘sacred’ writings. These
writings usually play some part in the ceremonies and regular meetings
of their fellowship, and are usually held to date from very long ago. In
fact the writings that ‘the religious’ rely upon are usually translations of
still earlier texts. The majority of the religious probably do not much
care for scholarly exegesis or reinterpretation of those first texts: if it was