On the Prospects of Christianity: Bernard Shaw's Preface to Androcles and the LionShaw, Bernard
Religion
On the Prospects of Christianity: Bernard Shaw's Preface to Androcles and the Lion
Shaw, Bernard
Christianity; Essays; Prefaces
had his place in the scheme of things. Indeed the apostles made this
an excuse for carrying subservience to the State to a pitch of idolatry
that ended in the theory of the divine right of kings, and provoked
men to cut kings' heads off to restore some sense of proportion in the
matter. Jesus certainly did not consider the overthrow of the Roman
empire or the substitution of a new ecclesiastical organization for the
Jewish Church or for the priesthood of the Roman gods as part of his
program. He said that God was better than Mammon; but he never said
that Tweedledum was better than Tweedledee; and that is why it is now
possible for British citizens and statesmen to follow Jesus, though they
cannot possibly follow either Tweedledum or Tweedledee without bringing
the empire down with a crash on their heads. And at that I must leave
it.
LONDON, December 1915.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account