Bernard Shaw's Remarkable Religion: A Faith That Fits the Facts

Preface xiii
hope to reach some of the many others who are interested in these vital
issues. Philosophers, scientists, and theologians as well as most thoughtful
members of the lay public are endlessly debating the relationship of science
and religion, the place of human volition in the universe, and the
possibility of a religion that is intellectually honest and a reliable guide to
daily life. I have attempted to present the issues in a manner acceptable to
specialists but without the jargon that might put off the general public
unless it seemed essential, and then I have tried to provide clear and simple
explanations. One more thing: I have not attempted to hide my belief that
these issues are momentous and Shaw’s answers to them vastly superior
to the various orthodoxies. This is consequently a rather more passionate
book than one is apt to find in the lists of a scholarly press. I offer that as a
warning, not an apology. I find myself more deeply engaged with a work I
am reading if the author is honestly committed to a point of view, even if
that is not a view I share, and I hope my readers will have a similar experience
with this book.
Acknowledgments
Whatever virtue this book possesses owes much to many people, including
many such committed writers whom I have never met. Of course, Shaw
himself is foremost among those; I thank the British Museum Press for
permission to reprint excerpts from Shaw’s Fragments of a Fabian Lecture.
But there are many others whose clarity of vision and incisive gaze have
provided the illumination I needed for my own timid efforts. David Hume
and Bertrand Russell provided me with the philosophical foundations necessary
to attempt the metaphysical interpretation of Shaw, and John
Searle’s more recent efforts to rehabilitate the idea of mind in respectable
philosophical circles gave me courage and inspiration. My debts to the interpreters
of Shaw who have preceded me are endless and uncountable.
Shavian critics are by and large wonderfully open, pragmatic, and flexible,
as one might expect given their subject. They willingly explore new approaches
and ideas and are refreshingly free of the attitudinizing and ideological
cant that clogs so much of academic writing these days. Of the
many who have enlightened me purely through their writings I would
have to call especial attention to Eric Bentley, whose book on Shaw is still a
classic after so many years; G. K. Chesterton, who understood Shaw far
better than any of his other contemporaries; Louis Crompton, whose solid
research and penetrating insights still provide the best available reading of