RELIGION AND THE INTELLECTUALS
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being what it is today, this leads me to believe that it is impossible
to build a flourishing culture on religious foundations.
Even if it were somehow possible to separate religious beliefs
from institutions, it would still not be necessary to maintain the
former as the condition of culture. The argument that one cannot
understand, appreciate or otherwise participate in a culture without
sharing its religious beliefs is obviously nonsense in the case of
Classical culture. It should follow from this that participation in the
Medieval synthesis by way of direct belief is unnecessary to the
appreciation of Dante (and probably harmful, so far as any modern
perspective is concerned), but for some reason this argument, though
a true one, is never advanced. One can very well understand Dante's
faith (or anyone else's) in his own terms and appreciate its part in
the creation of his poetry, without sharing it in the least. Otherwise
one should have to argue that atheists cannot be cultured men, and
that the religious can have no contact with cultures whose religious
traditions are different from their own. To the degree that the
religious beliefs are incompatible with one another, a true love of
Dante, in terms of this argument, should limit one to at best a
partial understanding of Dostoevsky and a complete incapacity and
actual antipathy for Chinese poetry-all of which is absurd. But
the contrary is true-the less one shares the religious beliefs of a
given period, the better does his position with regard to the culture
become. This holds even in religion, as in Bible study; for the gen–
eral tendency in the development of any culture is away from fun–
damentalism and toward the granting of greater autonomy to the
aesthetic and historical construction of doctrine. This shift, which
takes place in all cultures, is an implicit recognition of naturalism and
an admission that the naturalistic basis is sufficient for culture. All
that need be preserved in going from a sacred to a secular tradition is
a feeling for the religion, as distinct from belief, and this is available
to a normal act of empathy.
It
is no greater mystery than any act
of insight in any social context. There are some that have it and some
that don't. No amount of religious exercise will help those who are
unable to establish contact with the feelings of another; for as a
rule they are out of touch with their own religion, and in general
with their own emotional milieux.
If
a man is incapable of understand–
ing the work of a religious poet, look to his sensibility rather than his
