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Faith of a Heretic

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Writing about religion has always been a risky endeavor. There are few subjects which so often provoke banal,intellectually dishonest discussions that rarely get to the heart of the real issues. But Walter Kaufmann, one of the greatest scholars of the last century, succeeds in Faith of a Heretic where so many others have failed. Instead of defining concepts like "faith" and "religion" without examining their historical and cultural uses, Kaufmann traces religious ideas through their development in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and subsequent philosophical discourse. This analysis results in a study of religion that avoids the reductionist condemnations of faith so common among today's "free thinkers," and the simplistic diagnoses offered by writers in the "science and religion" movement. If you want to start thinking seriously about religion, this is the place to start.

Kaufmann informs his work with his years as a professional philosopher, and professor at princeton. In it, he surveys, but with depth, the history of the western religious and philosophical traditions and allows the reader to think for himself. The book offers no easy answers to the big problems of life, but asks the rght questions, which are framed in ways that hold the readers thought for days, impacting the readers life permanently.

`The Faith of a Heretic' by the leading Princeton philosophy professor, writer of popular philosophical criticism and scholar of philosophical history, Walter Kaufmann, is possibly the book which has had more influence over my life, at least my `professional' life than any others (Benjamin Franklin's `Autobiography' comes in a close second). It was the book which influenced me to study Philosophy as my major in college, going so far as to enter a Ph.D. program to become a professor of Philosophy myself. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, but no blame for that is attributable to Professor Kaufman.

As I re-read parts of this book after 45 years, I see so many of his arguments in a completely different light. None of them are weaker, and I can see the point of many of his lines of reasoning much more clearly now, especially after having done some research on one of his chapter subjects, Martin Luther.

The book arose from an article in a popular magazine which was doing a series from the point of view of a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and a non-believer. This means that while the title of the book is a powerful attention-getter, it may just be the least logical part of the book. I say this because most `heretics' profess to hold beliefs attributable to a certain label such as `Christian' or `Catholic' or `Muslim', yet they profess beliefs which run contrary to `orthodoxy' as determined by the organization running the show under these doctrinal labels. But, `atheist' or `agnostic' or `non-believer' just don't seem to have the pizzazz as `Heretic'.

In fact, the whole book is written from the point of view of someone who does not hold to any one set of religious beliefs. I'm sure there are some who would argue that the `scientific' or `rational' point of view is in itself a position one takes `on faith', but Kaufman (and I) would argue that the scientific and the religious points of view are two entirely different ball games, let alone being in the same ballpark.

Kaufman was raised as a Lutheran in pre-World War II Nazi Germany, and converted to Judaism at the tender age of 11, just when it was becoming extremely dangerous to be a Jew in Germany. While his not being able to believe in the Trinity was his primary reason, that is not the basis of his argument against Christianity. His primary argument against all religions is also not that they turn their back on rationality, but rather that professing a religion prevents you from questioning certain basic assumptions such as the resurrection of Christ and redemption by belief in the promise of his resurrection. This is not unlike holding to the axioms of Euclidean geometry, thereby preventing you from exploring the possibilities of relativity, which rely on what has come to be known as non-Euclidean geometry.

As a critic of religions, Kaufmann's independent point of view and omnivorous selection of sources permits him to take very fresh looks at some pretty important beliefs. My favorite re-discovery is in his chapter on St. Paul, Luther, and Albert Schweitzer. Early Lutherans, and possibly Luther himself tended to see the heart of the Jewish religion, through the eyes of St. Paul, as being based entirely on adherence to the Law. And, it is clear that one of Paul's central themes was that one can certainly be a Christian without adhering to Jewish practices such as circumcision and the dietetic practices. But, Kaufmann accurately points out that salvation offered by the God of the Jews was certainly an important part of their covenant.

In this same chapter, Kaufmann goes a long way in explaining why Christianity succeeded as well as it did when it first appeared on the scene. While the Law is certainly an important part of Judaism, and Judaism has a very strong sense of being a cohesive people with their own personal God, the Christian God is very much about the individual and their personal redemption. Now there are probably thousands of contemporary pastors giving sermons every week on Christian charity, probably 100 of these for every one based on Paul Augustine and Luther and Calvin and Jonathan Edwards' central notion of pure determinism and the absence of all freedom of the will. But then, we are not living in daily fear of Roman governors or the Black Plague or the red indians in the wilderness just over the hill, or even of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA).

Getting back to how this book influenced me, the heart of the matter is in Immanual Kant's three questions repeated on the cover of the paperback edition, which identify the very core of philosophical investigations.

From the point of view of a philosophical professional, what is amazing is Kaufmann's ability to use everything from all modern camps, from Existentialism (especially Nietzsche and Kierkegaard) to Wittgenstein. I am surprised that Kaufmann makes no reference to Bertrand Russell's classic `Why I am Not a Christian', but based on a few brief visits to that book, I believe Russell may be missing the point, but wait for my review of that volume to be sure.

If I were to cite nothing else in recommending this book, I would point out that it is truly a rare book which addresses the general audience on a technical subject which lasts as long in circulation as this volume, first published in 1961. I even recommend it to confirmed Christians with the advice that it can clarify one's faith without dismantling it.

This was obviously a labor of love for Kaufmann. Indispensable are his discussion of honesty and a chapter positing Kaufmann's four cardinal virtues. A delightful and stimulating work, start to finish. Kaufmann's writing is not "merely" academic; he brings his whole self to his writing, incorporating philosophy, drama, poetry, and humor with deft artfulness and skill. A must-read.

In this eminently rewarding book, Walter Kaufmann takes up where Critique of Religion and Philosophy leaves off, this time in a more personal and constructive tone. I can honestly say that there is hardly a page in the book that did not make me think. Particulary good are chapters on the problem of evil in a Biblical perspective, how to read the Old and New testaments, and a chapter against organized religion. This book is indeed heretical, but it has the great virtue of being a honest attempt to think clearly about important issues. I urge it upon believer and heretic alike.

If some books are meant to be chewed and digested, as Bacon said, then you really need to eat this one. Probably the most important and meaningful book I have ever read, or am ever likely to read. A unique, profound, human point of view on the important questions of life and death.

I've read this one and Kaufmann's Critique of Religion and Philosophy several times and they, more than any other books except James's Varieties of Religious Experience, helped me become a thoughtful and informed atheist (as opposed to a thoughtless one). This book can lay the foundation for your philosophy of life, if you let it. Highest possible recommendation.

Not a dry treatise on philosophy and religion, "The Faith of a Heretic" is an expression of the personal views of Walter Kaufmann, the famous translator of Nietzsche's books. The book is difficult to classify: it's a mixture of philosophy, theological criticism, biblical analysis, morality and practical advice. But a quote in the epigraph provides a focal point: [from Ludwig Wittgenstein] "what is the use of studying philosophy if all that it does for you is to enable you to talk with some plausibility about some abstruse questions of logic ... if it does not improve your thinking about the important questions of everyday life?" Philosophy's strongest aptitude has always been sheer criticism, attacking and discrediting ideas. But after all that discrediting, what is left? In his own way, this book shows what Kaufmann himself has gleaned from philosophy as it relates to "the important questions of everyday life." Kaufmann's reasoning process is careful and sensible. Unlike religious zealots, he never accepts any assertion without analysis. And everything Kauffman does accept seems tentative--but no less tentative than the conclusions reached by science. No background in philosophy is needed. The writing is brilliant. Kaufmann can fluently string together long, complex sentences into meaningful paragraphs. After a long paragraph discussing abstract concepts, an ordinary reader can say to herself, "I understood that." It would be easy to recite here some of Kaufmann's conclusions--too easy. In isolation, Kaufmann's conclusions are hardly new and may even seem cliched. In my view, it is better to first follow Kaufmann's analysis in order to fully appreciate his conclusions.

This was obviously a labor of love for Kaufmann. Indispensable are his discussion of honesty and a chapter positing Kaufmann's four cardinal virtues. A delightful and stimulating work, start to finish. Kaufmann's writing is not "merely" academic; he brings his whole self to his writing, incorporating philosophy, drama, poetry, and humor with deft artfulness and skill. A must-read. (Reposting from another listing, which I commented on in 1999. This book remains a biggie for me!)

Like Kaufmann's Critique of religion and philosophy, this is a brilliant analysis of theological and philosophical ideas. It should be on any intelligent person's reading list.

I thoroughly enjoyed parts of this book, especially the chapters on Suffering and the Bible and Jesus vis-à-vis Paul, Luther, and Schweitzer. However, with all the talk of morality and honesty I was quiet taken aback by the following excerpt. According to Kaufmann, "to find the spirit of the religion of the Old Testament in Joshua is like finding the distinctive genius of America in the men who slaughtered the Indians. Many nations have their Joshuas, and the chance to make a unique contribution to humanity has often been bought with the sword: the genius of a people shows itself in what is done later to realize this costly opportunity. Survival in this wicked world may be a crime that has to be redeemed by subsequent achievements." It is left to the reader's imagination as to what is the distinctive genius of America, its unique contribution to humanity, its subsequent achievements that have redeemed it of this crime, and how a man of Kaufmann's caliber came to believe that the slaughter of the Indians was necessary to our survival. One can easily envision a future apologist for a triumphant Third Reich blathering on about how their survival depended on the slaughter of the Jews and how their subsequent achievements have absolved them of any crime. Or perhaps a comparison of Nazism and Manifest Destiny is unwarranted. Kaufmann tells us in the preface of Malcolm Hay's Europe and the Jews, a book he recommends reading to avoid living in a "fool's paradise", that when the wholesale liquidation of the Jews began "Hitler withheld the news from the German public". Judging from an editorial in Denver's Rocky Mountain News entitled "Exterminate Them" it would appear that public outrage over mistreatment of the "red devils" was not a concern. As Ward Churchill has pointed out, "at no point were the Nazis secure enough in the pervasiveness of German exterminationist sentiments to conduct triumphal marches through the streets of Hamburg in which the body parts of butcher Jews were openly displayed". Obviously US and colonial troops had no such qualms about parading through the streets of Albany, Dover, Boston, New York, and Denver with the body parts of Native Americans. Thomas Jefferson, famed author of "all men are created equal", seems unambiguous in his instructions to the Secretary of War with regard to the Indians: they should be "exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi." And again in 1813: the goal is "extermination, or to drive them to new seats beyond our reach." Perhaps the distinctive genius of America is to be found not in those who execute the slaughter but in the statesmen who give the orders, the hoi polloi who crowd the streets to cheer their approval, and the academics who whitewash such behavior. Kaufmann decries the cultural influence that has lead to Anne Frank being "the only victim of the Nazis who has touched the hearts of millions". It seems that Native Americans are still waiting for their Anne Frank. Hay used a quote from Lord Acton in his book that might be relevant here as well: "Suffer no man or cause to escape the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong."