Word: secularism
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...religion (hence by their definition, opium). Nevertheless, Marxism has its bible (Das Kapital), its god (dialectical materialism), its pope (Stalin), saints (Marx, Engels, Lenin), martyrs (Liebknecht, Luxemburg), doctrine (communist "line"). As in other religions, heresies and schisms occasionally crop up. Heretics are sometimes exiled, often handed over to the secular arm (shot), always excommunicated. Most serious heresy in the eyes of Stalinist true believers is Trotskyism, whose heresiarch is Leon Trotsky, now an exile in Mexico. Trotsky's heretical sect styles itself the Fourth International (5,000 communicants). Until last week its U. S. congregation was the Socialist Workers...
...agrees with Bates that, as many religious faiths contributed to democracy, democracy itself became a national religion. Professor Gabriel's early chapters supplement Bates's later ones, but Gabriel's book deals mainly with a century-1840 to 1940-in which vitality passed from religious to secular thinkers. Among the first and most powerful, Gabriel places Herman Melville...
Henry Purcell composed at a time when the mediaeval religious tradition of the Renaissance had disintegrated into a purely secular art. The English Restoration, especially, was accompanied by an important efflorescence of secular music. One can easily appreciate the role of the Puritan Revolution in creating the new spirit. The seventeenth century Puritan, with his austere morality and his mystic absorption in God, could neither enjoy music nor understand its function. To him music was a sensual pleasure, and as such was a barrier to the contemplation of eternal truths. It had no place in the Church service. In this...
Purcell expressed completely this secular spirit; his comprehensive genius seized on certain formulae of taste, and forged them into a style which at once satisfied popular demand and his own individuality. Eccentric rhythms, unusual and striking harmonics, surprises in melodic line: all of these fill the pages of his scores. The restless gaiety of the court made variety an essential ingredient in all art, but few succeeded as well as Purcell in pouring into this exacting mold their own genius. Pergolesi, in Italy fifty years later, was still struggling for artistic homogeneity. Incongruously juxtaposed in the "Stabat Mater" are passages...
Other religious music pales beside the Mass. Mozart and Beethoven both wrote masses of unquestionable beauty, but since they were more in the secular tradition than Bach they did not succeed so well in pouring into these works their own greatness of spirit. The Easter music from "Parsifal" likewise, for all its magic, seems mere tour de force, coloristic effect, next to the Mass; Wagner was concerned chiefly with recreating the atmosphere of legend and not with creating a setting for Christian devotion. The Bach B minor Mass is, in fact, a unique work. Consequently, its performance next Sunday...