Partisan Review. Religion and the Intellectuals. A Symposium by James Agee and others. Pp. 139. New York, 1950. 80 cents
| Author | Henry N. Wieman |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400194 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
259
guilty
of
the
&dquo;sin&dquo;
of
a
very
distant
an-
cestor,
turning
baptism
into
magic,
letting
guilt
be
transmitted
physically,
and
degrad-
ing
marriage
and
woman;
and
second
with
his
advocacy
of
compulsion
in
religion
and
the
myth
of
sacerdotium
over
civil
govern-
ment.
Fortunately,
the
sixth
study
chosen
was
Schweitzer’s
Out
of
my
Life
and
Thought. ,
His
three
insights
are
so
much
needed
to-
day :
I
cannot
be
happy
without
serving
man;
I
have
something
particular
to
con-
tribute ;
the
universal
conception
of
the
ethical:
reverence
for
life.
And
so
Schweitzer’s
final
message
to
the
world:
(1)
let
humility
mean
for
you
the
ought-
ness
of
strength
and,
through
true
knowl-
edge
of
self,
dare
to
stand
erect
in
the
sight
of
G6d
and
so
serve
man;
and
(2)
make
men
&dquo;less
shallow
and
morally
better
by
making
them
THINK.&dquo;
CONRAD
HENRY
MOEHLMAN
Dallas,
Texas
Partisan
Review.
Religion
and
the
Intel-
lectuals.
A
Symposium
by
James
Agee
and
others.
Pp.
139.
New
York,
1950.
80
cents.
The
editors
of
the
Partisan
Review
asked
twenty-nine
men
of
recognized
standing
in
literary
and
intellectual
circles
to
discuss
one
of
the
significant
tendencies
of
our
time,
especially
in
this
decade,
namely,
&dquo;the
new
turn
toward
religion
among
in-
tellectuals
and
the
growing
disfavor
with
which
secular
attitudes
and
perspectives
are
now
regarded.&dquo;
Some
of
the
twenty-nine
exemplify
in
their
own
person
this
turn
to
religion,
but
most
of
them
do
not.
Their
comments
are
penetrating
and
illuminating,
also
sensitive
to
what
is
happening
to
society
and
to
the
minds
of
men
today.
I
do
not
know
of
any
publication
so
brief
which
presents
a
better
analysis
of
what
might
be
called
the
cultural
and
spiritual
problem
of
these
days.
Diverse
as
are
the
interpretations
of
this
&dquo;turn
to
religion,&dquo;
most
of
them-not
all-
seem
to
agree
on
the
following
points:
1)
Naturalism
as
opposed
to
supernatu-
ralism
is
still
dominant
and
this
turn
to-
ward
religion,
so
far
as
it
is
a
turn
to
any-
thing
transcending
this
temporal
world,
is
a
temporary
resurgence
of
traditionalism
that
will
pass
and
give
way
to
the
further
development
of
the
naturalistic
interpreta-
tion
of
reality.
The
writers
do
not
define
naturalism
al-
though
the
great
majority
profess
it
or
in-
directly
reveal
that
this
is
their
view
of
things.
The
reviewer
will
attempt
to
make
up
this
deficiency,
deriving
his
definition
from
much
reading
of
the
writings
of
natu-
ralists.
Naturalism
is
the
view
that,
first,
everything
having
causal
efficacy,
every-
thing
that
can
make
a
difference
in
this
world
is
necessarily
temporal
and,
second,
even
if
anything
with
power
to
change
things
was
nontemporal,
the
human
way
of
getting
knowledge
by
observing
events
would
make
it
impossible
ever
to
get
any
reliable
knowledge
of
a
nontemporal
power,
cause
or
source.
2)
The
second
major
point
made
by
the
majority
of
these
twenty-nine
contributors
is
that
this
turn
to
religion
is
in
part
due
to
the
immaturity
of
naturalism.
While
naturalism
will
become
increasingly
domi-
nant
if
our
civilization
continues,
it
has
not
yet
developed
sufficient
richness
and
scope
of
imaginative
outlook
to
provide
a
satisfactory
dwelling
place
for
the
imagina-
tive
mind.
It
is
as
yet
too
narrowly
bound
to
the
physical
sciences,
to
methodology,
and
to
the
bare
bones
of
mathematical
and
experimental
formulae.
But
this
limitation
is
not
necessarily
intrinsic
to
naturalism.
Tragedy,
hope,
memory,
joy,
sorrow,
and
symbols
that
bring
to
the
sensibilities
of
the
mind
the
felt
qualities
of
past
events,
the
felt
qualities
of
future
possibilities,
the
felt
qualities
of
imagined
might-have-beens,
all
this
can
be
developed
as
abundantly,
perhaps
more
abundantly,
within
the
bounds
of
a
mature
naturalism
as
ever
was
pos-
sible
when
supernaturalism
reigned,
or
any
other
form
of
transcendentalism.
But
such
imaginative,
emotional,
richly
qualitative
symbols
have
not
yet
been
developed
ade-
quately
by
prevalent
naturalism.
Hence
this
turn
to
traditional
sources
and
ways
of
thinking
on
the
part
of
imaginative
and
emotional
spirits
who
feel
imperatively
the
demand
for
amplitude
in
expression.
HENRY
N.
WIEMAN
University
of
Oregon
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