Russell on Religion: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell (Russell on... Series)

Rating:
Summary: A "Free Man's Worship."
Review: As a freethinker, Bertrand Russell recognized that his approach toward religion was "somewhat complex" (p. 3; see also, "My Mental Development"). Over the course of his life, Russell's attitudes toward religion evolved from an attempt to "preserve religion without any dependence on dogmas," to a more polemical stance (p. 3). Like Freud, Russell searched for the roots of popular religion in psychology, and found that the purpose of religion is to give respectability to the passions of fear, conceit, and hatred (p. 11, see also, "Has Religion Contributed to Civilization?"). The writings Russell scholars Louis Greenspan and Stefan Anderson have collected in this volume are representative of Russell's "uncompromising opposition to religion" (p. 12), and offer an excellent passage into Russell's thoughts on the subject of religion. Greenspan and Anderson have organized Russell's writings into five sections, revealing the chronological development of their subject's thoughts on religion.

Russell believed that the only way to obtain liberation from suffering was to abandon any hope for private happiness, and to burn instead with a passion for eternal things independent of the ruin of the physical universe (pp. 20-21; see also, "The Free Man's Worship"). For him, true wisdom meant knowing all, loving all, and serving all (p. 69, see also, "The Essence of Religion"). Among present-day religions, he considered Buddhism the best because it focuses on the question of what Man is, rather than what the universe is (p. 74; see also, "The Essence and Effect of Religion"). In his his seminal essay, "Why I am not a Christian," Russell advocated standing up and looking the world "frankly in the face." "A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage," he wrote; "it does not need a regretful hankering over the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create" (p. 91).

This intellectually stimulating collection of essays will appeal to readers interested in the subject of religion, and to those looking for an introduction to the philosophical, historical, critical, and private writings of Bertrand Russell.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: A "Free Man's Worship."
Review: As a freethinker, Bertrand Russell recognized that his approach toward religion was "somewhat complex" (p. 3; see also, "My Mental Development"). Over the course of his life, Russell's attitudes toward religion evolved from an attempt to "preserve religion without any dependence on dogmas," to a more polemical stance (p. 3). Like Freud, Russell searched for the roots of popular religion in psychology, and found that the purpose of religion is to give respectability to the passions of fear, conceit, and hatred (p. 11, see also, "Has Religion Contributed to Civilization?"). The writings Russell scholars Louis Greenspan and Stefan Anderson have collected in this volume are representative of Russell's "uncompromising opposition to religion" (p. 12), and offer an excellent passage into Russell's thoughts on the subject of religion. Greenspan and Anderson have organized Russell's writings into five sections, revealing the chronological development of their subject's thoughts on religion.

Russell believed that the only way to obtain liberation from suffering was to abandon any hope for private happiness, and to burn instead with a passion for eternal things independent of the ruin of the physical universe (pp. 20-21; see also, "The Free Man's Worship"). For him, true wisdom meant knowing all, loving all, and serving all (p. 69, see also, "The Essence of Religion"). Among present-day religions, he considered Buddhism the best because it focuses on the question of what Man is, rather than what the universe is (p. 74; see also, "The Essence and Effect of Religion"). In his his seminal essay, "Why I am not a Christian," Russell advocated standing up and looking the world "frankly in the face." "A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage," he wrote; "it does not need a regretful hankering over the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create" (p. 91).

This intellectually stimulating collection of essays will appeal to readers interested in the subject of religion, and to those looking for an introduction to the philosophical, historical, critical, and private writings of Bertrand Russell.

G. Merritt