Taking its title from a poem by Thomas Hardy, this 400-page book examines the period (1850-1900) during which intellectuals in western Europe began to discard Christianity and when some, as a result, found themselves in "profound agony." Wilson, a novelist-biographer-journalist who lives in London, examines the experiences and influences of not only Darwin but also Hume, Gibbon, Mill, Hegel, Marx, Carlyle, and others. The chapter called "In the Name of the Father" posits a correlation between the anti-family, anti-father attitudes of Victorian intellectuals such as Samuel Butler and the rejection of God the Father by Butler and his circle. Then Wilson factors in Sigmund Freud's insistence that patients question their trust in their parents -- question, in other words, the tenet of Judaism, his ancestral religion, "to honor thy father and mother." In the final chapter, Wilson ponders the survival of "the God-idea."

[Notes by Francine Weinberg, a member of The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, New York City; March 2001]

New York: Norton, 1999. ISBN 0-393-04745-8.

$27.95

To order through Powell's Books, click here. (A portion of this electronic purchase will be contributed to IFSHJ)

<< back