George Bernard Shaw, His Religion And Values

The underlying theme of the book is to project G.B. Shaw as a man of religion behind the faced of his iconoclasm. He was a dramatist, a sociologist, a biologist, an economist, a humorist an eugenist, and above al he was a devoutly religious man. he considered religion as the life-blood of human civilization. A man without a religion is considered by him as a coward. The Shavian conception of religion and moral values is quite unlike the traditional ones established by the priestly order. Shaw was a Christian in his own way without being wedded to any particular order of church. As a critic of the institutionalised from the religion he attacked many of the established tenets and ecclesiastical practices. Christianity as has been enunicated by Jesus Christ, he observes, has been virtually crucified along with his own crucifixion. While the church-based Christianity as we have it today is the handiwork of St. Paul and not of Jesus Christ. Shaw holds St. Paul responsible for the debasement of Christianity. As a consequence, Christianity has been replaced by ?churchianity? or ?crosstianity?. The Shavian attitude towards the Godhead is also something unlike our own. For him God is not an anthropomorphic being but the source of all the creative forces. God for him is nothing but ?Life-force?. Even regarding heaven and hell he offers his own untraditional explanation. Shaw was also a critic of the Bible, more especially the Gospel of the four Evangelists. But, nevertheless, he cherished deep veneration for the Bible of which he was a regular reader. He used to carry a pocket Bible while on journey and he called it ?my travelling Bible?. Besides, he tried to look at religion from every angel of vision-economic, socio-logical, biological, eugenic, and political. Most of the authors on Shaw have wittingly or unwittingly ignored this vital aspect of his life and personality. Hence, the author of this book makes a sincere effort to throw some light over this neglected area of Shaw writing. In the process of making an in-depth study of Shaw?s religion and values the author makes an attempt to reassess most of the representative works of the former. This is an additional dimension of this book.