RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS Full text of "Religion from ...

RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS


Full text of "Religion from Tolstoy to Camus"
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RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS

Books by Walter Kaufmann:
NIETZSCHE (1950) CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY (1958) FROM
SHAKESPEARE TO EXISTENTIALISM (1959) THE FAITH OF A HERETIC (1961)
Translator and editor: THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE (1954)
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: ESSAYS BY LEO BAECK (1958)
GOETHE's FAUST (1961)
Editor EXISTENTIALISM FROM DOSTOEVSKY TO SARTRE (1956) PHILOSOPHIC
CLASSICS: THALES TO ST. THOMAS (1961)
PHILOSOPHIC CLASSICS: BACON TO KANT (1961)
RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS (1961)

"RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS Selected^ with an introduction
and prefaces, by Walter I^ufmann Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New Tork


RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS Copyright © 1961, by Walter Kaufmann.
Printed in the United States of America. All rights in this book are
reserved. Library of Congress catalog card number: 61-12838. Grateful
acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to use
selections from the works indicated: THE BEACON PRESS, BOSTON: Europe and
the Jews, by Malcolm Hay, copyright 1950 by The Beacon Press under the
title The Foot of Pride. BENZIGER BROTHERS, INC., NEW YORK: "Aetemi
Patris" by Leo XIII, in The "Summa Theo- logica" of St. Thomas Aquinas,
191 1; copyright 1947 by Benziger Brothers, Inc. BASIL BLACKWELL, OXFORD:
"Gods," in PhUosophy and Psycho-analysis, by John Wisdom, 1957; copyright
1953 by Basil Blackwell. (Grateful acknowledgment is also made of
Professor Wisdom's permission.) THE DEViN-ADAiR COMPANY, NEW YORK:
Dogmatic Canons and Decrees by Pius IX, 1912. GROVE PRESS, INC., NEW YORK:
"Reflections on the Guillotine," in Evergreen Review, Vol. I, No. 3, by
Albert Camus, translated by Richard Howard, copyright 1957 t>y Grove
Press, Inc. (Grateful acknowledgment is also made of permission by the
French pub- lisher, Calmann-Levy, Paris.) HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK:
Christian Beginnings, by Morton Scott Enslin, copyright 1938 by Harper &
Brothers; Approaches to God, by Jacques Maritain, copyright 1954 by
Jacques Maritain; Dynamics of Faith, by Paul Tillich, copyright 1957 by
Harper & Brothers. WILLIAM HODGE & CO., LTD., EDINBURGH: The Gestapo
Defied, by Martin Niemoller, copy- right 1941 by William Hodge & Co., Ltd.
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, NEW YORK: "The Dark Side of Religion," in The
Faith of a Liberal, by Morris Cohen, copyright 1946 by Henry Holt and
Company. (Grateful acknowledgment is also made of the permission of Harry
N. Rosenfield, Executor of the Cohen Estate.) LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING
CORPORATION, NEW YORK, AND THE HOGARTH PRESS, LTD., LONDON: The Future of
an Illusion, by Sigmund Freud, translated by W. D. Robson-Scott, Copyright
1928. THE MACMiLLAN COMPANY, NEW YORK: "The Conception of the Kingdom of
God in the Transformation of Eschatology" by Albert Schweitzer, in The
Theology of Albert Schweitzer by E. N. Mozley, copyright 1950 by A. & C.
Black, Ltd., London. MCGRAW-HILL BOOK CO., INC., NEW YORK: "The Dark Side
of Religion," by Morris Cohen, in Religion Today, A Challenging Enigma,
copyright 1933 by Arthur L. Swift, Jr. (Grateful acknowledgment is also
made of the permission of Harry N. Rosenfield. Executor of the Cohen
Estate.) OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK: "A Reply to the Synod's Edict
of Excommunication," in On Life and Essays on Religion, by Leo Tolstoy,
translated by Ajdmer Maude (World Classics Edition, 1934). RouTLEDGE &
KEGAN PALTL, LTD., LONDON: The Way of Man According to the Teachings of
Hasidism, by Martin Buber, copyright 1950 by Martin Buber. STUDENT
CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT PRESS, LTD., LONDON: Against the Stream, by Karl Barth,
1954- THE VIKING PRESS, INC., NEW YORK: The Antichrist in The Portable
Nietzsche, by Fried- rich Nietzsche, selected and translated by Walter
Kaufmann, copyright 1954 by The Viking Press, Inc. THE WESTON COLLEGE
PRESS, WESTON, MASS.: Humani Generis by Pius XII, translated with
commentary by A. C. Cotter, S.J., second edition 1952, copyright 1952 by
The Weston College Press.




Dedication: TO HERMAN AND SARAH WOUK WHO LED ME TO LOVE ST. THOMAS, V.
I.


PREFACE
Most of the following selections are complete, whether they be short
stories, fables, encyclicals, essays, fairy tales, poems in prose,
sermons, letters, or even a short book. All deal with religion, some with
its truth, some with its relation to morality and society. The point is
not to win friends for religion, or enemies, but to provoke greater
thoughtfulness. Here are texts that deserve to be pondered and dis-
cussed. Some of them I have criticized in other volumes; in such cases, the
references are given. But in the present book nothing is included merely
to be disparaged, nor is anything offered only to be praised. The hope is
that those who read this book will gain a deeper understanding of
religion. W. K.


CONTENTS:
Preface vii
1 . INTRODUCTION, Religion from Tolstoy to Camus i
2 . TOLSTOY. My Religion ; The Death of Ivan Ilyitch; How Much Land
Does a Man Need?; A Reply to the Synod's Edict of Excommunication.
3 . DOSTOEVSKY, Rebellion and The Grand Inquisitor 757
4 . PIUS IX The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception 160 The Eiicyclical
Quanta Cura 160 The Syllabus of Errors* 162 The Dogma of Papal
Infallibility
5 . LEO XIII The Encyclical Aeterni Patris* 775
6 . JVIETZSCHE The Antichrist ipi
7 . CLIFFORD The Ethics of Belief* 201
8 . JAMES The Will to Believe* 221
9 . ROTCE The Problem of Job* 239
10 . WILDE The Doer of Good* 2$8 The Master* 2^9 The Nightingale and
the Rose* 260 A Letter on Prison Life* 26^ * Complete ix Contents

11 . FREUD The Future of an Illusion
12 . COHEN The Dark Side of Religion*
13 . ENSLIN The New Testament
14 . NIEMOLLER The Wedding Garment* The Salt of the Earth* Gamaliel*
15. HAT Europe and the Jews
16. EARTH and BRUNNER A Correspondence*
17 . PIUS XII The Dogma of the Assumption The Encyclical Humani Generis*

18 . MARITAIN The Third Way
19 . TILLICH Symbols of Faith
20 . WISDOM Gods*
21 . SCHWEITZER The Conception of the Kingdom of God in the
Transformation of Eschatology*
22 . BUBER The Way of Man according to the Teachings of Hasidism
23 . CAMUS Reflections on the Guillotine * Complete




RELIGION FROM TOLSTOY TO CAMUS

INTRODUCTION

The story of religion, whether in Biblical times or in the last three
quarters of a century, is not reducible to the superficialities of the
masses and the subtle- ties of priests and theologians. There are also
poets and prophets, critics and martyrs. It is widely recognized that
one can discuss religious ideas in connection with works of literature,
but exceedingly few poets and novelists have been movers and shakers of
religion. Leo Tolstoy, who was just that, has not been given the attention
he deserves from students of religion. With all due respect to twentieth-
century poets and novehsts who are more fashionable, it is doubtful that
any of their works have the stature of Tolstoy's Resurrection. This novel
does not merely illustrate ideas one might like to discuss anyway but aims
rather to revise our thinking about morals and religion. To say that
Tolstoy was a very great writer, or even that his stature surpassed that of
any twentieth-century theologian, may be very safe and trite. But a much
bolder claim is worth considering: perhaps he is more important for the
history of religion during the century covered in this volume than any
theologian; perhaps he has contributed more of real importance and original-
ity and issues a greater challenge to us. That is why his name appears in
the title of this book, and why he has been given more space than anyone
else. Those who follow are a heterogeneous group, selected not to work
toward some predetermined conclusion but to give a fair idea of the com-
plexity of our story. The work of the theologians has been placed in
perspective, no less than that of the literary figures, philosophers, and
others who are not so easy to classify. Almost all the men included were
"for" religion, though not the popular religion which scarcely any great
religious figure has ever admired. Like the prophets and Jesus, like the
Buddha and Luther, these men were critical of much that was and is
fashionable; but their point was for the most part to purify religion.
Only three of the twenty-three represented here wrote as critics of
religion without being motivated by an underlying sympathy: Nietzsche,
Freud, and Morris Cohen, No effort has been made to give proportional
representation to various denominations. As it happens, Roman Catholicism
and the Greek Orthodox church, Judaism, atheism, and various forms of
Protestantism are all repre- sented by at least one adherent; but with the
exception of the popes, these are not spokesmen. The point is not to
appease everybody but to provoke thought. The men included disagree with
one another on fundamental issues. Hence one cannot help disagreeing with
most of them unless one refuses to think. These men did not aim to please
but to make us better human beings. By wrestling with them we stand some
chance of becoming more humane.



TOLSTOY

It is customary to think of Tolstoy as a very great novelist who
wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but who then became immersed in
religion and wrote tracts. His later concerns are generally deplored, and
many readers and writers wish that instead he might have written another
novel of the caliber of his masterpieces. A very few of his later works
are excepted: chief among these is The Death of Ivan Ilyitch, which is
acknowledged as one of the masterpi