"The Thinker's Handbook: A Guide to Religious Controversy” by Hector Hawton, is published by Watts & Co. at 2/6d. With 250 pages of well-printed matter, a stout paper cover, ample index, and adequate bibliography, it would on these points alone rank as one of the cheapest books now on the market. The publishers claim that “in clear, simple language the best contemporary solution to problems that have baffled man from the dawn of reason are set out side by side in order that the reader may reach his own conclusions in accordance with the evidence.”
The author deserves the thanks of serious students for having made a conscientious endeavour to carry out this claim; very rarely indeed is a statement of fact or opinion made without clear indication of source; attempted rebuttal on the religious side receives adequate. even generous quotations.
The book under review is a rich quarry for undisputed facts regarding the practice of prominent Christians. “Saint” is the highest title bestowed by the Church to a chosen few. On page 87, one reads that St. Augustine, a very pillar of Christian faith, “preached the damnation of unbaptised infants.” It may be added here that Pope and Saint Gregory I wrote letters of congratulation and other marks of honour to Phocus “a monster of vice and cruelty.” This is regretfully admitted in “The Students’ Ecclesiastical History” Part 1, p. 493 (in many respects a Balaam’s Ass in reverse).
Students should do their best to get two books quoted by Horton placed in the public library. They will probably be surprised to find to what a scraggy anatomy Christian “belief” has been reduced. “Doctrine in the Church of England” is a frantic effort on the part of Archbishops Temple and Davidson and their fellow Vicars of Bray to reduce to some respectable shape, the irreconcilable “beliefs” of the official clerical crowd. The “preface” alone is revealing. “Christianity in the light of Modern Knowledge” (various authors) provides entertaining reading in every essay. “The Thinkers’ Handbook” quotes from Dr. Bevan’s essay “The death of Jesus was an unquestionable fact admitted by everybody.” Is “impudence” too strong a term to ascribe to this reverend guide of theological students?
All rationalists are aware that persecution has been one of the high notes of Christian theology, the bitterest antagonisms being among rival schools of thought. Crude persecution has practically ceased, but on p. 190, of “Whither Theology?” (is quoted) the author (W. W. Robinson) claims that “The Fall” is “truth couched in symbolic form, and can only be denied by those who deliberately close their eyes to facts.” Does it require much penetration to sense here the old roaring persecutor doing his best to nightingale the roar? The ghost of the Inquisitor is not completely laid. “ Deliberately ”!
Just one suggestion; Could a future edition of Horton’s book contain some reference to the part played in the religious tragicomedy by sheer greed on the part of Church and State, and, more important still, the base part played by churches in support of the State? The saintly grovellers under the foot of a Constantine, of a Clovis, a Bluff King Harry, deserve some mention, as does the patron, if uncanonised saint of Protestantism, the baleful Luther.
“Thinkers Handbook” marks a big advance in rationalised literature; Herbert Spencer’s silly “Unknowable” is quietly by-passed; apologetic “agnosticism” whether of the order of T.H. Huxley or of Aldous Huxley receives cool attention.
The emphatic recognition of Marx as a powerful opponent of religious thought is welcome; there is a valuable extract (p. 134) from Marx’s "Introduction to a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law.” Above all, readers will be introduced to the flaming torch which Marx, pausing a moment from relatively dry (essentially necessary) exposition of Socialist economics, threw into the camp of all and sundry religionists. Here it is: “ The religious reflex of the real world can only finally vanish when the practical relations of everyday life offer to man none but perfectly intelligible and reasonable relations with regard to his fellow men and to nature.” (“Capital” Vol. 1, p. 51 Kerr’s edition).
The general reader interested in politics and religion will enjoy “The Thinkers’ Handbook’’—the Socialist should certainly add the book to his library, read it through at leisure once, and then compile his own Index, choosing first the chapters which have interested him most. Amen !
Augustus Snellgrove
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This review was written under Snellgrove's pen-name of 'Reginald'.
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