Rating: 
Summary: Challenging, but worth the effort
Review: After a slow and shaky start, my philosophy-challenged brain cells adapted to the intellectual tone of this meticulously researched and documented book about the decline of religious faith in the 19th century. The author discusses the various scientific discoveries and philosophical arguments that led to many prominent individuals to abandon Christianity, and even God, altogether; and the effects this abandonment of belief had on these individuals and on society itself.
The thing I found most notable is how much this 19th-century struggle between intellectualism and faith is still going on for many people today. It certainly was mirrored in my own life. After about age 17 or 18, I could no longer accept the dogmatic, literalist fundamentalism with which I had been raised, but I couldn't reject the concept of God out of hand. After several years of searching, I returned to Christianity, but a different faith tradition: one which allows and encourages me to think, to question, to come to my own understanding of God and a faith that works for me.
I found it interesting, and encouraging, that the book itself ends on a similar note.
Rating:
Summary: A bit tough, but worth it
Review: As usual, Wilson is a little tough to read. He's an English intellectual, and his own struggles with faith and reason hide just between the lines here. Nevertheless, "God's Funeral" is an important contribution to the history of ideas. In a nutshell, the book details the struggles of 19th-century British intellectuals and theologians as they attempted to cope with advances in science and philosophy, particularly with the work of Darwin, Lyell, Marx and Freud. Brief profiles of Carlyle, Thomas Huxley, Matthew Arnold and many others are well-researched and enjoyable. You probably need a background in philosophy, literature or theology to fully appreciate "God's Funeral," but this book is worth it. Don't judge the book by its cover: while Wilson writes with what Americans will consider an elitist tone, no judgments or diatribes are offered here. Wilson works hard to be objective, and he achieves that goal.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Tightly Woven Intellectual History
Review: Despite the celebratory tones of its title, this is a moderately objective look at the erosion of religious faith in 19th century Europe. Wilson neither laments the passing of the age of faith, nor does he eulogize it with Promethean felicities; he simply tells a story. And at the end of that story one can't help but wonder if Wilson, like Dostoevsky's Stravogin, is apprehensive about the effects of religion's decline yet unwilling to repress his doubts for the sake of religion's social utility.But I must point out that Wilson's writing is closer to journalism than history. To be sure, his work is well researched; but at times his narrative runs thin, capriciously leaping between well-known anecdotes. Moreover, he endows ideas with a degree of autonomy few historians today would. He mentions social and cultural factors, but there is no significant discussion of how ideas are received and appropriated by people at different social strata for their own immediate concerns. For a more thorough treatment of secularization in the context of the Zeitgeist, I highly recommend Owen Chadwick's The Secularization of the European Mind in the 19th Century and (although it deals with a different era) C. John Sommerville's The Secularization of Early Modern England. But don't ignore Wilson's work. I found it a valuable source of biographical information and learned some things along the way.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant reportage from the bottom of a well.
Review: I had read Wilson's biographies of C.S.Lewis and Jesus before picking up this book, and found that while he was an excellent writer with an eye for telling detail, what the details told, tended to be what Wilson himself wanted to see. He piled up non-sequitors like foot stools to reach shaky conclusions. He mistook his own wild guesses for established fact. And most of all, he seemed glibly unaware of threatening counter-arguments. God's Funeral is not free of such faults. However, I can't deny the book is a good read; full of interesting character sketches and iconoclastic ideas. You can do much worse on a rainy day. I am not sure the Victorian era was altogether the spiritual watershed Wilson portrayed it as. For example, after depicting the loss of faith of a number of intellectuals raised in Christian homes, supposedly the greatest thinkers of the day, he alleged that even the prominent Christian Prime Minister William Gladstone toned down his faith during this period. But it was Gladstone who noted, presumably late in his career, that, "I have known 95 of the world's great men in my time, and of those, 87 were followers of the Bible." No doubt Gladstone's definition of "great" was influenced by his beliefs; but so was Wilson's. Some of the important figures Wilson describes here, like Marx, Bertrand Russell, and George Sand, have elsewhere been very convincingly described as flakes. (See Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, for example.) Gladstone's comment reminds us that Wilson catches only a very constricted view of modern faith, like the frog in the Chinese story who looks at the sky out of a well and thinks he has seen the world. In Wilson's view, evidence against the truth of Christianity that began to accumulate in the 19th Century, such as Darwin's theory of Evolution and Biblical criticism, terminally undermined the basis for belief. Modern Christians who ignore that evidence are, he thinks, fooling themselves with sophistry (evangelicals) or willing themselves to believe despite the evidence (liberals). The problem with this generalization, while it may accurately describe individual cases on all sides, is that it does not take into account opposing phenomena; areas of evidence that have increased the credibility of the Christian faith as the modern era wore on. (And which parallel the continued growth and spread of the world-wide church, about which Wilson is fairly subdued.) Exit the well, and look in other directions, and you are likely to notice such things as: the Anthropic Principle, the failure of radical New Testament criticism (Crossan, Funk, Wilson himself) to come up with a credible materialistic explanation for the Gospels, the surprising complexity of even "primitive" life, (which of Darwin's atheist contemporaries thought we'd still be looking for a way for life to emerge from non-life at the turn of the millenia?), the long-prophecied return of the Jewish people to Israel, the surprisingly univeral nature of the Christian concept of God, the undermining of mechanistic models in physics, or the folly and destruction of Marxist, Nazi, sexual, and aquarian revolts against orthodox morality. In addition, many modern believers (including myself) have seen God answer prayer in remarkable ways. All these are among the empirical evidences that have driven many thoughtful people toward, rather than away from, belief. On the other hand, much of the prima facia evidence against God on which modern skeptics set such store, such as suffering and the regularity of natural law, have been familiar throughout history; even the apostles expressed such doubts. So I find these generalizations from historical periods rather dubious; and I am tempted to wonder if there are really more atheists now than there were hundreds of years ago, or if they just have better jobs. God's Funeral is not a bad read. But if you find the philosophy that underlies it persuasive, let me challenge you to read a book I just wrote as well, called Jesus and the Religions of Man. While completed just before I read God's Funeral, it gives an empirical argument for the Christian faith that I think any skeptic who sees only what Wilson sees, broadening. If, after reading it, you don't agree, send the book back, and I'll refund what you paid for it. d.marshall@sun.ac.jp
Rating:
Summary: Informed opinion vs. inflamed prejudice
Review: If you have only a general notion of how God took sick and died in 19th century England, you'll find "God's Funeral" literate and informative. Sadly, however, as the book progresses Wilson's writing becomes tinged with nastiness and ad hominem one-liners that showcase wit rather than wisdom. Of Shaw's obsession with medical quackery and woolen clothing designed to draw "poisonous vapours" off the body, he writes: "none [vapours] came, suggesting at the very least someone as devoid of animal substance as the paper-thin creations of his matinee-dramas." Of George Eliot's hopeless love for her landlord-employer John Chapman, Wilson comments: "Poor horse-faced lady." While this may be considered urbane expression on the Isles or the Continent, to this American reader such passages (and there are others) come across as tacky and mean-spirited. The comment about Shaw reveals a more serious concern, one that grows as we push farther into the book: how much of this is informed opinion and how much is merely Wilson's (often inflamed) prejudice? He touts Swinburne as a "poet of genius" while criticizing Arnold's "Dover Beach" for being vague ("[it] does not after all *say* anything . . . does not advance a metaphysic"). Of Herbert Spencer he writes: "No real philosopher today has the smallest interest in him." Why, then, devote an entire chapter to Spencer's irrelevance? Our suspicion grows that Wilson's judgments break along half-hidden fault lines, whether Catholic-Protestant or some other ideological split. One can perhaps forgive an Englishman his aversion to Newman. But the obstinate struggle for faith that he derides in Arnold, he forgives, if not justifies, in Ruskin and in Annie Besant, of all people! Still, if you are willing to sift the informed from the merely inflamed, you will find this an excellent survey of the English wing of a great loss that, consciously or not, we all still mourn.
Rating:
Summary: A Broad Brush Map of the Demise of Faith.
Review: It seems that, a few loonies aside, the book has been fairly reviewed thus far. The criticisms: Wilson can be a little smug at times; one needs some background knowledge of the history and protagonists that Wilson highlights; and a tendency to wander upon tangents. These are all telling caveats. However, in part it is the character of Wilson, his tempered and sardonic nature, which is one of the main attractions of the volume. This lends "God's Funeral" a certain lightness of touch, at times perhaps too light, to a matter which is extremely weighty. The result is a highly readable book. For me, the predominant feature to commend itself was that the book helps put the philosophers and theologians of circa 19th C into a coherent context. I would not read "God's Funeral" to better inform oneself about any one individual, a fortiori as it is highly anecdotal. However, it is far too easy to see individuals as simply that: individuals, lacking in a temporal frame of reference. What "God's Funeral" does very well is to facilitate the task of looking back into this history in a global fashion. If one were to buy Wilson's book for a particular reason it would surely be this.
Rating:
Summary: A Christian perspective
Review: This book is basically a historical approach to the rise of atheism (or at least agnosticism) in the late 19th century through the early 20th century. The underlying theme that I as a Christian couldn't help but notice is the large part hypocrisy of the Christian community has played in this continuing saga of man versus God. This book does a fine job of taking various lives and writings and putting their major themes together in order to arive at general understanding of humankind's lack of faith. However, the author was open minded enough to finish with William James and thus not discount the notion of religion within the pages of his book. If you are a serious religious student or even a novice philosopher, this book will give you a better appreciation for the small things that we do that influence those that may someday influence the entire world. Whether negative or positive is in our hands. From a religious perspective this book should serve as a humbling experience, unfortunately people punish the basis of the religion because of the "followers." If you're looking for more ammo to discount religion you may be dissapointed, I don't believe that was the author's purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: A magnificent overview: the idea of God in the 19th Century!
Review: This is a book to curl up with in front of a fireplace on a series of snowy winter nights. The author brings his skills as a novelist, biographer, and a journalist together - and not to "make a point" or to "prove a thesis". This is a comfy, rambling, fascinating exploration of 19th Century thought, mixing anecdote, philosophical reflection, theological theory, and "bon mot's. The language fits the topic. Perhaps the closest to a focus Wilson comes is when (pg. 13), he states that "God's funeral was not, as many in the nineteenth century might have thought, the end of a phase of human intellectual history. It was the withdrawal of a great Love-object." After reading, underlining, and re-reading this work, I'm still not sure where Wilson stands on many of the issues he raises - but I'm glad he produced this smorgasbord! -- "God's Funeral" introduces us to hundreds of 19th century thinkers (The author is English; his focus lingers on those from England!). They range from the still famous (Marx, Darwin, John Stuart Mill, and Kant), to figures out of high school literature courses (Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, Swinburne, and the Rosettis), to such forgotten's as Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Feuerbach, David Strauss, and Benjamin Jowett. The greatness of this volume is that it makes one want to read the books that these people wrote. (Finding some of these tomes may prove harder than one would expect; it took me months to get a 102-year old copy of Thomas Carlyle's "The French Revolution"!) Wilson is a man of strong opinions. For example, he states of Herbert Spencer: "No real philosopher today has the smallest interest in him, since his use of language is so inexact that it is usually difficult to know precisely what he means." About Tolstoy, obsessed in later years with "the famous injunctions not to hoard up treasure on earth, and not to take revenge upon enemies" Wilson writes that he was "hated (and eventually excommunicated) by the Orthodox Church precisely because he showed that if these texts were acted upon, even partially, European civilization, with its aggressive nation states, its greedy capitalism, its ruthless pursuit of laissez-faire economics, its empire-building, its religious conservatism, would collapse." A.N. Wilson does NOT waffle! [His harsh words about creationism and American fundamentalists in the Preface have certainly hit some nerves!] But Catholics (devout and lapsed alike) will find the final chapter, about Modernism, fascinating. The "modern heresy" of Modernism, following the declaration of Papal infallibility in 1870 is an area seldom examined by modern Catholics, even a university level. Wilson gives a fascinating introduction to this neglected period of Church history (1890-1910). -- Oh, incidentally, one nice touch (thank you, dear publisher!) is the inclusion, in the middle of the book, of 38 photos and engravings (mostly portraits). -- Wilson ends his book (p. 354) with a clarion call that should cheer the religious: "...the God-idea, so important a part of human consciousness, has not been discarded with anything like the readiness which the late Victorians would have predicted. One of the most extraordinary things about the twentieth century has been the palpable and visible strength of the Christian thing, the Christian idea. ... Simone Weil, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Nicholas Berdayev and Teilhard de Chardin were waiting in the wings...."
Rating: 
Summary: Something's Missing
Review: This is a history of philosophic thought through the nineteenth century that traces how G-d disappeared from the belief system of the philosophers of England (and America). However, it seems to be one-sided. Plus, in the final chapter we somehow end up with Pope John Paul II. I'm not sure how we ended up there. There is no thread that follows unbroken from the Catholic Modernists of the turn of the Twentieth Century to the turn of the Twenty-first Century in what the author has offered. I feel as if the author was trying to justify the reason for studying the philosophical history of the ninteenth century by saying such history has led to today's Catholic Church by just making the jump from circa 1900 to circa 2000. It doesn't work for me. Thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent background for understanding our age of unbelief
Review: Those who want to understand the origins of our 20th century attitudes towards religion could do no better than to read A. N. Wilson's new book on the 19th century decline of faith among the English intellectual classes. A. N. Wilson explains how Humean scepticism, German biblical criticism, the failure of deism, and the rise of science, seem to have all hit their mark as belief came to be viewed as untenable, or worse -- unsophisticated. While intellectual qualms could always be explained away by fashionable argument, emotional needs and intuitive doubts, it seems, were not so easily dismissed. Again and again thinkers found themselves in the twilight land of agnosticism. This twilight funeral land, suitably amplified by technology, seems to be the modern dilemma as well. Our thinkers, still in thrall to 19th century visions of the future, seem to have failed to understand the extent and depth to which humans are spiritual beings. Without the guidance that these thinkers can provide -- sound and reasonable thought -- the rest of mankind has failed in its search, carried out in every ridiculous nook and debasing cranny, for sustaining spiritual sustenance.
|
