RELIGION IN FICTION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1923, Page 17

RELIGION IN FICTION

TWO, WOKEN WRITE3S" VIEWS.

Writing ia the New. York issue oi the Litsrary. Digest International Book •Review on "Religion/and the Young Nov^ elist," .Miidrec". .Wassos directo. attention' to- ice kc; • ft at vhi> philosophy, sociology, psychology, psycho-analysis., and the "isms" .-play prominent paris in t'.ia ii' v er.".-y' output of. the younger generaiipc, religion, does.! pot figure. Diocuspi'.ig the Kutitade of sucn writers as T Scott, F'.ti^ei aid, .Stephen Vincent Benet, Slliot Paul, ami others, she says : "I arc seeking in. vain i'or tho word ti expi'oss the attitude toward religion I-Snd in. Lhasa. young novels. it is a quarter-tone I want, rather than a word, sud I fao".- that the' note is not on this Irayboard I -.would flat the word.'flippancy''or sharp the' word 'nonchalance,' anc! yei leave the tone ■ untouched. How much is pose and how much 13 7rar.lt self-revelation is impossible for me ,ib" determine. .-' . . •

'I hava said that religion has no leading -o!e m play.. Itis case is worse than that. Religion as the profession' of the Christian way of life and a hope of imrr.orality. "seems to be-classed with the dear delusions of the generation of un-' oles and parents. When. God is.acknovledged ci a!!, He is hailed by His first name, called down from His axalted Throne and motioned to a seat upon the floor. Irreverence, c flaunting bravado which is a soi'rbwful attempt at moral courage,' repudiation of the old laws, &nd'a. hooting raillery at She new —these seem to me to be striking sbaracteristics.. oi the, ce'v poss!' Hose -'Macauley, writingon the same subject in "Th^ Guardian,' 'emarks : Religion is very! iamely deaJt -nth in fiction. It figures alternate!;' as a tyrant, an imbecile, an excuse ior interfering impertinently wiM-. ono's neighbours (sea the many novsi* about church-going s,hd philanthrophio 'adie; in small towhs), as the excluaive perquisite of soma particular churcH, and a'a f. mild intellectual diversion fo? not very intelligent young men. Ear too seldom ii is treated Tike any other' eflecfcive and dynamic fores in life; too seldom, also, are all its possibilities and vanstios even superficially, explored: Atter all, treated merely ag material,-it should be. a rich and various theme. These tyrant-parents,: these inquisitorial pansh-ladies—even they must have their grange and storm-ridden mner-i\fe. The thing, wants doing better.