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A review by lpm100
The Quest for God by Paul Johnson
2.0
Book Review
2/5 stars
The Quest for Gd
Paul Johnson
"Give this one a miss; profound-thought-to-noise ratio WAY too low."
"A little philosophy makes men atheists; A great deal reconciles them to religion."
Francis Bacon
"When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent its leaking out at a certain point, with the likely result that it will leak out at some other point."
Eric Hoffer
"Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed."
Karen Armstrong
“Those who think religion is about “belief” don't understand religion, and don't understand belief.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
*******
Johnson is a great historian and I have read several of his books.
And because I'm so impressed with his reasoning with respect to analyzing historical things.... I thought that it would be good to see what he had to say about religious things.
There were some interesting terms of phrase/lines of reasoning, but honestly nothing that I have not read before. (Hence the quotes that I gave from classic books about the same topic.)
After I read the book, what I conclude is that:
1. A person's religious experience may be composed of 1,001 different facets, and just fortuitously some people will have similar experiences. But, since it's never quite the same experience twice it's almost not worth trying to abstract the religious experience.
It is what it is, and it's different for some.
Johnson did say that the book was "written to resolve many doubts in his own mind and to clarify his thoughts and define what Gd meant to him and his life."
But if he has found that resolution.... now what?
(And this is the answer that I give to anybody who says that they are "trying to find the meaning of life"; okay, now that you have found it.... What are you going to do with it?)
2. A lot of his discussions were "angels dancing on the head of a needle type" things.
I can't imagine what benefit it is to write an entire 19 page essay speculating about the nature of hell and who may / may not be there.
3. There are a number of other books that I would recommend in preference to this one.
-Devil's Delusion, Berlinski
-A History of Gd, Armstrong
-True Believer, Hoffer
-Apocalypse never (specifically the chapter on "False Gds for Lost Souls"), Shellenberger
-Jewish Mystique, vanDenHaag
4. Yes, Johnson is a Catholic, but a lot of his frameworks of reference are completely irrelevant for the other 4/5 of humanity that is not Catholic. (Purgatory. Saints. Cathedrals. Pontiff.)
He does mention Judaism several times in this book, and the entire Jewish notion of prayer / belief in Gd is 0.4% about belief, and the other 99.6% about the doxastic commitment that is demonstrated by following all of the rituals. (You lose 4 days of pay to be off work on Pesach and another six on the High Holidays and that speaks infinitely more strongly than a bunch of whooping and hollering about belief.)
*******
The author of this book is a lifelong Catholic, and he is proof positive of the staying power of the first quote.
Johnson is a historian, and a very well-read one at that.
Essentially, he notes that with the fall of traditional religions, secular religions just took their place.
According to the Christian doctrine, mankind is theoretically perfectible. (20 centuries later, we still haven't gotten there.)
According to the secular religions - - Marxism / communism/environmentalism/ Critical Race Theory, mankind can be perfected if you just believe us.
Interesting quote. (p.38): "This helps to explain why Christianity spread so rapidly across the world and is still a living thing for a billion human beings, while Judaism remained the religion of an austere elite who can get by without anthropomorphic props."
*******
Of the book
203 pps of prose
16 chapters
≈13 pps/chapter
Verdict: Not recommended.
Ultimately, there just was not enough value-added for me to recommend the book to anyone else, nor keep it.
Acquired vocabulary:
empyrean
Indiarubber
gimcrack
meretricious
Urbi et orbi
Magisterium
kyrie eleison
lubricious
cortège (British word for procession)
catafalque
timpanum
empyrean
Imprecatory Psalm
Synonymous parallelism
antithetical parallelism
synthetic parallelism
climactic parallelism
introverted parallelism
stairlike parallelism
emblematic parallelism
psalter
eccliastic
antiphonal
polyphonal
2/5 stars
The Quest for Gd
Paul Johnson
"Give this one a miss; profound-thought-to-noise ratio WAY too low."
"A little philosophy makes men atheists; A great deal reconciles them to religion."
Francis Bacon
"When we debunk a fanatical faith or prejudice, we do not strike at the root of fanaticism. We merely prevent its leaking out at a certain point, with the likely result that it will leak out at some other point."
Eric Hoffer
"Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed."
Karen Armstrong
“Those who think religion is about “belief” don't understand religion, and don't understand belief.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
*******
Johnson is a great historian and I have read several of his books.
And because I'm so impressed with his reasoning with respect to analyzing historical things.... I thought that it would be good to see what he had to say about religious things.
There were some interesting terms of phrase/lines of reasoning, but honestly nothing that I have not read before. (Hence the quotes that I gave from classic books about the same topic.)
After I read the book, what I conclude is that:
1. A person's religious experience may be composed of 1,001 different facets, and just fortuitously some people will have similar experiences. But, since it's never quite the same experience twice it's almost not worth trying to abstract the religious experience.
It is what it is, and it's different for some.
Johnson did say that the book was "written to resolve many doubts in his own mind and to clarify his thoughts and define what Gd meant to him and his life."
But if he has found that resolution.... now what?
(And this is the answer that I give to anybody who says that they are "trying to find the meaning of life"; okay, now that you have found it.... What are you going to do with it?)
2. A lot of his discussions were "angels dancing on the head of a needle type" things.
I can't imagine what benefit it is to write an entire 19 page essay speculating about the nature of hell and who may / may not be there.
3. There are a number of other books that I would recommend in preference to this one.
-Devil's Delusion, Berlinski
-A History of Gd, Armstrong
-True Believer, Hoffer
-Apocalypse never (specifically the chapter on "False Gds for Lost Souls"), Shellenberger
-Jewish Mystique, vanDenHaag
4. Yes, Johnson is a Catholic, but a lot of his frameworks of reference are completely irrelevant for the other 4/5 of humanity that is not Catholic. (Purgatory. Saints. Cathedrals. Pontiff.)
He does mention Judaism several times in this book, and the entire Jewish notion of prayer / belief in Gd is 0.4% about belief, and the other 99.6% about the doxastic commitment that is demonstrated by following all of the rituals. (You lose 4 days of pay to be off work on Pesach and another six on the High Holidays and that speaks infinitely more strongly than a bunch of whooping and hollering about belief.)
*******
The author of this book is a lifelong Catholic, and he is proof positive of the staying power of the first quote.
Johnson is a historian, and a very well-read one at that.
Essentially, he notes that with the fall of traditional religions, secular religions just took their place.
According to the Christian doctrine, mankind is theoretically perfectible. (20 centuries later, we still haven't gotten there.)
According to the secular religions - - Marxism / communism/environmentalism/ Critical Race Theory, mankind can be perfected if you just believe us.
Interesting quote. (p.38): "This helps to explain why Christianity spread so rapidly across the world and is still a living thing for a billion human beings, while Judaism remained the religion of an austere elite who can get by without anthropomorphic props."
*******
Of the book
203 pps of prose
16 chapters
≈13 pps/chapter
Verdict: Not recommended.
Ultimately, there just was not enough value-added for me to recommend the book to anyone else, nor keep it.
Acquired vocabulary:
empyrean
Indiarubber
gimcrack
meretricious
Urbi et orbi
Magisterium
kyrie eleison
lubricious
cortège (British word for procession)
catafalque
timpanum
empyrean
Imprecatory Psalm
Synonymous parallelism
antithetical parallelism
synthetic parallelism
climactic parallelism
introverted parallelism
stairlike parallelism
emblematic parallelism
psalter
eccliastic
antiphonal
polyphonal