RELIGION AND THE INTELLECTUA LS
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This general attitude survives today in a somewhat modified form
among orthodox Marxists, especially of the Stalinist type. But in
intellectual circles outside the Marxist camp, the old crusading
spmt
IS
gone, even though many of the basic beliefs and attitudes
of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century progressivism still
survive. By and large, we find no outright rejection of religion in
these circles; what we do see most often is either qualified criticism
or sympathetic appreciation. In this sense, we may speak of "greater
religious sympathies" existing among intellectuals. But I do not
think that this change can be correctly described as a movement
from " lack of religion" or "rejection of religion" towards "morc
religion." It seems to me, rather, that the earlier type of intellectual
was a more "religious" man than his present-day successor who
pays his respects to traditional religious forms and beliefs.
In fact, what do we mean by "religion"? I propose to define
this term for the purposes of this discussion as meaning a system
of beliefs and practices serving to secure "salvation" for the individual
and the group-where "salvation" means the elimination of all evil
and imperfection from human existence, the attainment of perfec–
tion. I t makes no difference in this respect whether "salvation" is con–
ceived of as a this-worldly or other-worldly affair, and whether it is
thought of as dispensed by God or by man himself; we have to do
with "religion"- though with very different types of religion-in
either case.
The typical progressive intellectual of around 1900 had be–
liefs which can be interpreted adequately only as beliefs in salvation.
His thinking was strongly utopian: he saw an ideally perfect society
ahead, and more often than not just around the corner. In that
society, he held, there would be no such man-made evils as exploita–
tion, inequality and injustice. But more than that, the ideal society
of the future would progressively get rid of the evils of "nature"
too, such as illness, old age, and ultimately, death itself. The idea of
overcoming death is, in fact, essential to all religions as doctrines of
salvation, for death is the archetype and paradigm of the evils from
which man seeks salvation. In sum, we may say that the religious man
is one who is certain of being supported by an invincible force that
will eventually deliver him and his group from all evil, including
death; and that the typical progressive intellectual of the recent
