Word: religion
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...world tour (LIFE, March 10), people in every nation have the same "new longing to explore the possibilities of a spiritual interpretation of reality," all other interpretations having yielded such barren fruit. In the U.S., church membership (72 million) is at an alltime high. Not for decades has religion enjoyed so much friendly curiosity...
...Religion is not something one wins by voting against irreligion. Religion is the most difficult and radical thing in the world. If America were to undergo a genuine religious revival, the course of history would be changed. And if any American wants to undergo a genuine religious conversion, he must prepare for a revolutionary change in his personal history...
...What Religion Is Not. "It would be naive," says Mr. Hutchinson, "to expect in this day the God-intoxication of a 17th-Century Spinoza." If that is so, it must be doubted that religion in this day is due for a serious rebirth. For "God-intoxication," whether it is appropriate for modern man or not, is one of the things religion is all about...
This proposition, though beyond proof, can be illustrated in two ways. We can show what religion is not, and we can invite testimony from those most experienced in true religion...
...Religion is not the "brotherhood of man." The Golden Rule is a necessary but not a sufficient description of man's religious duty. Although almost all the great religions prescribe some variant of the Golden Rule, none of them relies on it exclusively. In the four Gospels Jesus speaks several times about the brotherhood of man, but he speaks of the Fatherhood of God just three times as often. Without that Fatherhood, man's efforts to live by the light of altruism have always landed him in its dark opposite...