Changing Over

There are three ways at least in which I could review this interesting book, in which (to quote the dust-cover statement) eighteen writers describe how they changed their basic convictions. One would be to write as an expert in the psychology of religion. For this I doubt if I have the qualifications. Another would be – since I am a Catholic Christian – to give a partisan review, concentrating on those cases where individuals have either become Catholics or ceased to be Catholic. This approach seems to me unduly narrow, and unfair to readers who are not members of my denomination.

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I have chosen a third way, since I trust that my own mind is sufficiently far from that of Hilaire Belloc (whose integral force I nevertheless admire) for me to count myself first a believer in Christ, and secondly, when I come to define that belief, a Catholic. I notice that those whose ‘journeys’ have led them away from Christian belief towards agnosticism or deistic humanism or (in one case) to orthodox Judaism, have asked the question – ‘What do I believe?’ – meaning by belief a summation of the most heterogeneous material ranging from queer feelings in the head to quarrels or love affairs with other people. They were really asking – ‘What kind of person am I?’ – a legitimate question, but one with only a remote bearing on belief.

Alternatively or simultaneously, many have asked – ‘What does the human race in general believe?’ – which is the central question for a comparative study of religions, but which leaves out of court the choice of belief and the reasons for that choice. I think anyone whose approach limits itself to a comparative study of religions is guaranteeing that he or she will become and remain either agnostic or atheist. Such detachment prohibits belief. This is not to say that a believer may not also, for intellectual and humane purposes, make such a study and retain belief.

Since all the material in this book is closely connected with either the acceptance or the rejection of varieties of Christian belief, it seems to me that the operative question should have been – ‘What did Jesus believe?’ And having once determined what he believed, one could then either accept it or reject it. I suggest (not stressing the point polemically) that he believed in an omnipotent, personal, loving Father not unknown to Judaic tradition, and that there is evidence very hard to argue away that he believed himself to be Divine as well as human. The Christians accept Jesus’ view of the Father and of himself – not necessarily Augustine’s view or the view of Billy Graham – and the non-Christians do not, though of course they may still be fond of Jesus. To my mind this is the logical crux of Christian belief. I am somewhat disappointed that none of those who have journeyed away from Christianity, in this book, and only a few of those who have journeyed towards it, seem to have grasped this essential point.

Having stated what I think to be the chief deficiency in the approach of most of these writers, I must hasten to say that their spiritual autobiographies are nearly all fascinating. The one I found personally most attractive was Abraham Isaac Carmel’s account of his journey from a Scottish Episcopal upbringing to priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and then to a dedicated Judaism. I felt a longing to meet this vigorously original man.

Christopher Isherwood’s account of his conversion to the teachings of Vedanta seemed to me equally attractive, perhaps on account of literary associations. Near the beginning of his credo, he writes – ‘In the first place, I hated Christianity because it was dualistic.’ This is most interesting. It suggests, as a number of the stories do, that the Christianity rejected was page 634 one of perverse belief and practice, and so, subjectively speaking, ripe for rejection. These are the true gems; but there are quite a number of garnets well worth looking at. Anyone who is searching for personal signposts to belief (or unbelief) will search here in vain. But anyone interested in the spiritual habits of his fellow men will find several days of good, lively reading.

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