Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists (2012)

Alain de Botton.  Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion.  New York: Pantheon Books, 2012.  320 pp.  $26.95 (cloth)      

    At first I thought that the title of this book was a joke, a witty introduction to religion by a philosopher who made a name for himself with such previous best-sellers as The Consolations of Philosophy and How  Proust Can Change Your Life.  But the title Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion is not meant as witticism.  de Botton thoughtfully reviews all the valuable things that religion provides to believers to help us cope with the human condition, step by step arguing that secularists need parallel institutions.  In fact, since 2008 he has been involved in one such  institution, The School for Life in London. 

     de Botton argues that we come to church not because we need formal instruction in the principles of morality, but because we need continual encouragement in right action.  We come to church not because prayer and ritual can change our lives in some direct or magical way, but because we  need consolation for our suffering--and we need to admit that suffering is the human condition.  We need to forgive; we need forgiveness; we need help and support in doing to.  We need reminding that we ourselves are not the center of the universe, because our culture encourages grandiosity and narcissism.  Above all, he argues, we come to church because we need a way to meet people who are seeking what we seek, and in a setting where it's safe to say hello to strangers.  In churches, he marvels, saying hello to strangers is normal.   

     So far, so good: I thought that his brief, elegant arguments on these points were consistently astute and even thought-provoking.  But the book took a progressively darker turn as merely fatuous proposals for secular equivalents were followed by actively dangerous ones.  Jumbotrons in every city broadcasting "edifying" messages?  Maybe not. 

     de Botton further argues that universities should be reorganized around the moral and psychological needs of students rather than academic subject matter.  Literary works should be valued for the "lessons" that each provides.  Art museums should reorganize their collection in the same way: a gallery of suffering, a gallery of compassion, a gallery of fear.  Petty moralists in the 18^th and 19^th century tried that approach: it was catastrophic for education, for the arts, and for religion itself.  Anyone with de Botton's education knows that story.   Anyone.  It's an inescapably important part of the rise of secularism in the West. 

     de Botton's "secular church" proposals would destroy vital resources, traditions, and institutions within secular culture without meeting the needs he describes so adeptly.  And that's why, in the end, Religion for Atheists struck me as essentially dishonest.                                                        

Catherine M. Wallace, PhD

CatherineMWallace.com