A Letter to a Comrade:Religion for the Mature, by Andrew W Taylor

Dear S.,

There is no doubt much religion is at the fetishistic and infantile level, but some religion penetrates to the deepest inward level of self-purification and a call to action,-- for example, Winstanley The Digger's communist 'Reason Mysticism' which unfolded in the English Revolution. This type of "experimental" [experiential] religion, included a detailed theoretical illumination, and caused Gerrard Winstanley to believe that private property was exploitative, was "the curse of Adam".

A problem I encounter in teaching Religion and Cultural Topics is that I often have a room full of students who having dispensed with/or retained their Sunday School/Catechism religiosity lack a passionate curiousity about the field of study.

With both the irreligious and religious student it is very tempting to "smash the religious idols" and suggest that a period of atheism might cleanse the kids minds and permit them to truly accept or reject religion for ever! I understand the "away with all gods" call: In Buddhism, there is the saying "if you meet the Buddha kill him" and St. Benedict the Founder of Western Monasticism commanded his monks to destroy their images(because no one and no thing is the Ultimate).


Are not socialism and communism themselves a kind of horizon that are currently a "thing unseen", a dialectical breakthrough which we glimpse? The world we see and suffer under is not good enough: we must make it better! The pathetic human imaginings and certainties we won't let go are our Golden Calf!

Thanks for writing,

Andrew W Taylor