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

244 Bernard Shaw’s Remarkable Religion
If Shaw is remembered only as a dramatist, he will have made a substantial
contribution to the cultural heritage of the human race, but he will
have failed in his life’s goal. His plays, like his politics and his daily life, are
the product of his philosophy, his conviction that all men are his brothers
and all women his sisters, a conviction that allowed him to present them
from their own point of view, without judgment, a faith that let him learn
from his own creations even as he invested them with his own wit and
insight. Delightful as they are, the plays will truly serve their purpose only
if they serve to shelter the spark of his most important insight, a spark that
has failed so far to ignite the minds of women and men despite his own
untiring efforts. If our civilization is to be saved, it must regain religion, a
religion based on fact and science but that acknowledges the fundamental
truth which Shaw never ceased to proclaim: that nature has a purpose
which is truly ours and that we can find our own purpose only when we
dedicate ourselves to fulfilling divine will. It is not “Thy will, not mine,”
but “Thy will is mine.” That will come only when we know, thoroughly
and completely, that divine will is as real and inescapable as gravity. The
Holy Ghost, the Holy Will, is an undeniable fact. That is the central truth
of Shaw’s religion, his ethics, his socialism, his life, and his works. We still
do not see it. As Ray Bradbury said, in the remarks that opened the introduction
to this book, Shaw’s spirit has been ahead of us all of our lives. It
will remain so as long as we flatter ourselves that the difference in our
perception represents our enlightenment and his delusion. Shaw opened
his realist’s eyes and saw the Holy Ghost. When, and if, we acquire the
courage to open our own eyes so far, Shaw will finally make his mark.