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society has made the old religious community appear a model of an
all-inclusive organic culture.
At the same time, the religions which had long been distrusted as
authoritarian institutions with irrational claims upon the individual,
have been re-accredited psychologically by the totalitarian course of
affairs-not only because the religions provide a highly organized
stable sphere supposedly immune to secular strains and corruption
and a spiritual defense against the intolerable demands of the
economy and the Mate, but more positively as conservative sources
of "totality" and strength in the political struggles of our time. In
Europe the growth of mass parties, held together by a doctrine and
a leader with charismatic gifts and by ceremonial forms, has made
the churches seem less out-of-date.
Also a factor in the re-emergence of religious ideas is the
present weakness of the liberal secular philosophies that had served as
undogmatic substitutes for religion. Those who continue to affirm free
thinking and a critical spirit have been unable for the most part to
answer the chief practical questions of the time or to take the
leadership in guiding belief. Unfailingly they recommend reason,
but in applying
it
they give weak, unsatisfying answers. They are
surprised by events as often as are the more ignorant and thoughtless.
Their rationalism and naturalism appear as blank forms, methodical
principles, which have yet to be filled in or properly applied. In
practice they defend the status quo, attacking all those who challenge
it from the right or left; they express faith in its gradual improve–
ment while conditions grow worse. Their solutions of economic and
political problems usually differ little from the ones proposed by
religious minds or by piecemeal empiricists without a vision of the
future. In their commitment to democracy, they are remote from the
masses and fail to inspire them with their own enthusiasm for "scien–
tific method." Their humane ideals are suspended for the duration
of wars, and they suffer the misfortune of finding themselves on the
same side as their religious and reactionary opponents, who generally
profit more by this alliance than do the sincere liberals. Caught by
circumstance and difficult alternatives, they have come to recommend
desperate measures contrary to their principles, like Russell who
proposed that Russia be threatened with atomic bombing in order to
bring about her forcible democratization.
