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The Faith of a Heretic

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The Faith of a Heretic THE FAITH OF A HERETIC Beginning a Series on Modern Religious Beliefs in America to become a Jew. Having never heard of Uni- One of America's most brilliant young philos- tarianism, I assumed that the religion for people ophers tells why-after' trying two of them-he who believed in God, but not in Christ or the cannot believe in any of the worLd's great re- Holy Ghost, was Judaism. ligions. He argues that acute, rational criti- A few months after my conversation with my cism of religious beliefs can, and should, exist father, but before 1 left the church, Hitler came along with deep feeling for man's religious quest. to power. 'Warned of the persecution that my But for him traditional religious teachings are decision might entail, I replied that one certainly only one amung many sources which can inspire men "to live and, if possible, die with some could not change one's mind for a reason like measure of nobility." / that. I did not realize until a little later that all In the following articles in this series, out- four of my grandparents had been Jewish; and standing young Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant none of us knew that this, and not one's own thinkers-none of them professional clergymen- religion, would be decisive from the Nazis' point will describe their personal faiths and tell how of view. My decision had been made inde- they arrived at them. pendently of my descent and of Nazism, on re- ligious grounds. I took my new religion very seriously, explored WALTER KAUFMANN it with enormous curiosity and growing love, and gradually became more and more orthodox. ''\Then 1 arrived in the United States in January HEN 1 was eleven, 1 asked my father: 1939, 1 was planning to become a rabbi. A lot of W "What really is the Holy Ghost?" "The things happened to me that winter, spring, and articles of faith taught us in school-in Berlin, summer; and when the war broke out I had what, Germany-affirmed belief in God, Christ, and but for its contents, few would hesitate to call a the Holy Ghost, and 1 explained to my father: mystical experience. In the most intense despair "1 don't believe that Jesus was God, and if 1 1 suddenly saw that I had deceived myself for can't believe in the Holy Ghost either, then 1 am years: 1 had believed. At last the .God of tradi- really not a Christian." tion joined the Holy Ghost and Christ. At twelve, 1 formally left the Protestant church Of course, I could maintain myoId beliefs by M FAITH OF A HERETIC merely giving them a new interpretation; but The ideas were not all there as a result of the that struck me as dishonest. Ikhnaton, the few experiences alluded to here: there were hun- monotheistic Pharaoh-as I explained in a letter dreds of others. Profound experiences stimulate to my family who were by now in England- thoughts; but such thoughts do not look very could also have reinterpreted the traditional adequate on paper. Writing can be a way of polytheism of Egypt, but was a fanatic for the rethinking again and again. truth. He taught his court sculptor to make life In the process of teaching and writing one masks of people to see how they really looked, must constantly consider the thoughts of men and in one of the heads which the sculptor had with different ideas. And prolonged and ever- then done of Ikhnaton, his hunger for the truth new exposure to a wide variety of outlooks-to- had become stone. T had loved that head for gether with the criticism many professors seek years. Should I now do what I admired him for from both their students and their colleagues- not doing? is a more profound experience than most people You may say that Ikhnaton was wrong and realize. It is a long-drawn-out trial by fire, that it is the essence of religion to pour new marked by frequent disillusionment, discoveries, wine into old skins, reading one's current insights and despair, and by a growing regard for honesty, into ancient beliefs. But if you do this, disregard- which is surely one of the most difficult of all the ing Jesus' counsel not to do it, you should realize virtues to attain. What one comes up with in that you could do it with almost any religion. the end owes quite as milch to this continual And it is less than honest to give one's own re- encounter as it does to any other experience. ligion the benefit of every possible doubt while A liberal education, and quite especially a imposing unsympathetic readings on other re- training in philosophy, represents an attempt to ligions. Yet this is what practically all religious introduce young people to this adventure. 'We / people do. Witness the attitude of Protestants have no wish to indoctrinate; we want to teach and Catholics toward each other. our students to resist indoctrination and not In my remaining two years in college I took accept as authoritative the beliefs of other men all the religion courses offered, while majoring or even the ideas that come to us' as in a flash in philosophy; and I continued to study and of illumination. Even if one has experiences think about both subjects as a graduate student that some men would call mystical-and I have and in the army. Eventually I got my Ph. D. and no doubt that I have had many-it is a matter of it job teaching philosophy. For over ten years integrity to question such experiences and any now I have taught, among other things, phi- thoughts that were associated with them as losophy of religion." In the process, my ideas closely and as honestly as we should question developed-into a book: Critique of Religion the "revelations" of others. To be sure, it is and Philosophy." easier to grant others their "revelations" as "true for them" while insisting on one's own as "true "Lest this should create a misleading picture of for oneself." Such intellectual sluggishness Princeton, it should be added that in our popular parades as sophistication. But true tolerance Department of Religion Protestantism is championed does not consist in saying, "You may be right, but vigorouslyby fivefull professorsand a large staff,and let us not make hard demands on ourselves: if ordained ministers are encountered in other depart- ments, too. Until his recent retirement, Jacques you will put your critical intelligence to sleep, Maritain was a member of the Philosophy Depart- I'll put mine to bed, too." True tolerance re- ment. Great universities, like this magazine,assume mains mindful of the humanity of those who that there is a virtue in confronting students and. make things easy for themselves and welcomes readers with a variety of responsible approaches. and even loves honest and thoughtful opposition ""Harper & Brothers, 1958. Many ideas in this above less thoughtful agreement. article are more fully developed and backed up in The autobiographical sketch with which I have this book which also deals with the positive aspects begun may do more harm than good. Some of various religions and with many topics not even amateur psychologists may try to explain "every- touched on in this article; e.g., existentialism,Freud, mysticism,Bible criticism, the relation of religion to thing" in terms of one or two experiences; some poetry, and Zen. Amongthe questions that are barely Protestants may say, "If only he had come to. me touched in this essay and treated more fully in my about the Holy Ghostl" while some Catholics book is the inadequacy of such labels as theism and may feel that it all shows once again how Pro- atheism. The contents of the present article, inci- testantism is merely a way-station on the road dentally-which is in no sense a summary of my to Hell. Critique-may greatly surprise many of my students, past and present, This is the kind of gambit that the shut-ins BY WALTER KAUFMANN ss pull on travelers. As if I had buried the Holy reconciled with it-from Neoplatonism (Augus- Ghost beyond recall when I was eleven, and God tine) and Aristotelianism (Aquinas) to roman- when I was eighteen! I merely started relatively ticism (Schleiermacher), liberalism (Harnack), early to concern myself with such questions-and and existentialism (Tillich, Bultrnann, and have never stopped since. Let the shut-in explore others). There is no room here to cross swords .Judaism and Protestantism, Catholicism and with a dozen apologists; in any case, dozens more Buddhism, atheism and agnosticism, mysticism, would remain. existentialism, and psychology, Thomas and The central question about Christianity con- TiIIich. Let him consult the lot and not just his cerns Jesus Christ. If he was Cod in a sense in own present prejudice; let him subject his which no other man has been God, then Christi- thoughts about religion to the candid scrutiny of anity is right in some important sense, however those who differ with him and to his own ever- Christendom may have failed. To decide whether new re-examination; let him have a host of deep Jesus was God in some such unique sense, a experiences, religious and otherwise, and think philosopher cannot forbear to ask just what this about them. That is the ground on which a claim might mean. If, for example, it docs not genuine conversation can take place: it need not mean that Jesus of Nazareth knew everything and make a show of erudition, if only it has grown was all-powerful, it is perplexing what is meant.
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