George Bernard Shaw: His Religion & Values

The underlying theme of the book is to project G.B. Shaw as a man of religion behind the fa?ade of his iconoclasm. He was dramatist, a sociologist, a biologist, an economist, a humorist, an sugenist, and above all he was devoutly religious man. He considered religion as the life-blood of human civilization. A Man without a religion is considered by him as a coward. The Shavian conception of religion and moral values is quite unlike the traditional ones established by the priestly order. Shaw was a Christian in his own way without being wedded to any particular order of ehurch. As a critic of the institutionalized form of religion he attacked many of the established tensts and ecclesiastical practices. Christianity as has been enunciated by Jesus Christ, he observes, has been virtually crucified along with his own crucifixion. While the church-based Christianity as we have it today is the handiwork of St. Palul responsible for the debasement of Christianity. As a consequence, Christianity has been replaced by ‘chruchainity’ or ‘crosstianity’. The Shavian attitude towards the Godhead is also something unlike ours own. For him God is not an anthropomorphic being but the source of all the creative forces. God for him is nothing but ’Life force’. Even regarding heaven and hell he offers his own untraditional explanation. Shaw was also a critic of the Bible, more especially Gospels of the four Evangelists. But, nevertheless, he cherished deep veneration for the Bible of which he was a regular reader. He used to carry a pocket Bible while on journey and he calledk it ‘my traveling Bible’. Besides , he tried to look at religion from every angle of vision-economic, sociological, biological, biological, eugenic, and political. Most of the authors on Shaw have writtingly or unwittingly ignored this vital aspect of his life and personality. Hence, the author of this book makes a sincere efforts to throw some light this neglected area of Shaw writing. In the process of making an in-depth study of Shaw’s religion and values the author makes an attempt to reassess most of the representative works of the former. This is an additional dimension of this book.