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God's Funeral: The Decline of Faith in Western Civilization

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Several of the reviewers of this book suggest that its main focus is whether God exists or not, and that it argues that God does not exist. This is incorrect. It would be much more accurate to say that the subject of the book is the movement of atheism and agnosticism into the intellectual mainstream of Western Europe. While Wilson does suggest that the discoveries of Darwin et al. require a re-evaluation of religious faith (and especially of Christian fundamentalism), he does not argue that faith is obsolete or God non-existent.

I enjoyed the book very much- the breeziness and partiality that seem to have annoyed some of its reviewers made it, for me, a lively and amusing read. Though Wilson often comes across as snotty or condescending, both to his readers and his subjects, just as often he seems to have genuine regard for his readers, and genuine sympathy for his subjects. The result is a book refreshing in its clarity and vitality, one that made me want to go out and read the authors and philosophers it discusses (except for Herbert Spencer).

As usual, Wilson is a little tough to read. He's an English intellectual, and his own struggles with faith and reason hide just between the lines here. Nevertheless, "God's Funeral" is an important contribution to the history of ideas. In a nutshell, the book details the struggles of 19th-century British intellectuals and theologians as they attempted to cope with advances in science and philosophy, particularly with the work of Darwin, Lyell, Marx and Freud. Brief profiles of Carlyle, Thomas Huxley, Matthew Arnold and many others are well-researched and enjoyable. You probably need a background in philosophy, literature or theology to fully appreciate "God's Funeral," but this book is worth it. Don't judge the book by its cover: while Wilson writes with what Americans will consider an elitist tone, no judgments or diatribes are offered here. Wilson works hard to be objective, and he achieves that goal.

Wilson tackles the Crisis of Faith that beset mid 19th century England in the wake of Enlightenment reasoning, devastating scientific advances, and German theology. This book will be hard going for readers without a grounding in, or a profound curiosity about, the notable thinkers (Newman, Carlyle, Spencer, Ruskin, et al) of the era, but Wilson's portraits are appropriately economical, lively, and wonderfully referenced to the great literature of the period. One comes away with an appreciation of the moral and intellectual struggles that engaged many Victorians as they re-examined the idea of a relationship to a personal God. Not much here for fundamentalists, but if you consider yourself a deist, an agnostic, an atheist, or a "sweetness and light' Christian a la Matthew Arnold (not a Wilson hero), this is a particularly rewarding book. As historian Gertrude Himmelfarb has pointed out, we still have much to learn from the Victorians and Wilson demonstrates vivedly yet another reason why this is so.

I was engrossed by this book, not so much because the premise was worth studying, i.e., the Western and Victorian response to Darwin, the Documentary Hypothesis, etc., but rather to reaquaint myself with old friends from philosophy class. It was wonderful to sit with and enjoy the philosophical problems that truth engenders. However, if you do not have a good background in Western philosophy, parts of this book may be somewhat dry. Still, even if you don't you will gain much from this volume.

I have no problem with the premise of the book, namely, the challenge to faith that discovered truths create. As some background, please know that I am a rabbi but that never means that Biblical myths are taken by me to be literally true. In my mind, religion is a search for truth and not mere adherence to myths and stories that satisfy the imagination but not the intellect. Clearly Darwin, Kant, et al certainly opened our minds to these realities and truths. Wilson, the author, is the messenger of their message.

It is true that he has something of an axe to grind against blind and oft-times prejudicial religious faith but that should not interfere with your enjoyment of the book.

Read it and say 'hi' to some old friends you haven't spoken with since school!

This book is basically a historical approach to the rise of atheism (or at least agnosticism) in the late 19th century through the early 20th century. The underlying theme that I as a Christian couldn't help but notice is the large part hypocrisy of the Christian community has played in this continuing saga of man versus God. This book does a fine job of taking various lives and writings and putting their major themes together in order to arive at general understanding of humankind's lack of faith. However, the author was open minded enough to finish with William James and thus not discount the notion of religion within the pages of his book. If you are a serious religious student or even a novice philosopher, this book will give you a better appreciation for the small things that we do that influence those that may someday influence the entire world. Whether negative or positive is in our hands. From a religious perspective this book should serve as a humbling experience, unfortunately people punish the basis of the religion because of the "followers." If you're looking for more ammo to discount religion you may be dissapointed, I don't believe that was the author's purpose.

The author presents broadly Victorian contributions to the idea of the death of God. Any reader of this book, however, needs to accept a couple of caveats. One, the author is discursive, almost ruminative, in his discussions of the central Victorians, often venturing a considerable distance from his central concern in order to shed light on the man (or woman) under his scrutiny. With Swinburne, for example, we read not only of his atheism, but of his alcoholism, his sadistic interest in pain, his parentage, his connections with the Pre-Raphaelites, and so on--in short, a kind of God-centered (or Godless-centered) biographical piece. And secondly, the author makes no bones about his attitudes towards the Victorian writer in question. No one reading this book can imagine that Herbert Spencer is anything but a silly and pompous man. And Swinburne, by the author's lights, is indisputably one of England's greatest poets. None of this distracts, however. The book is lively, and despite its gloomy, overriding thesis, actually fun to read. By all means, dig in!

Despite the celebratory tones of its title, this is a moderately objective look at the erosion of religious faith in 19th century Europe. Wilson neither laments the passing of the age of faith, nor does he eulogize it with Promethean felicities; he simply tells a story. And at the end of that story one can't help but wonder if Wilson, like Dostoevsky's Stravogin, is apprehensive about the effects of religion's decline yet unwilling to repress his doubts for the sake of religion's social utility.

But I must point out that Wilson's writing is closer to journalism than history. To be sure, his work is well researched; but at times his narrative runs thin, capriciously leaping between well-known anecdotes. Moreover, he endows ideas with a degree of autonomy few historians today would. He mentions social and cultural factors, but there is no significant discussion of how ideas are received and appropriated by people at different social strata for their own immediate concerns. For a more thorough treatment of secularization in the context of the Zeitgeist, I highly recommend Owen Chadwick's The Secularization of the European Mind in the 19th Century and (although it deals with a different era) C. John Sommerville's The Secularization of Early Modern England. But don't ignore Wilson's work. I found it a valuable source of biographical information and learned some things along the way.

Those who want to understand the origins of our 20th century attitudes towards religion could do no better than to read A. N. Wilson's new book on the 19th century decline of faith among the English intellectual classes.

A. N. Wilson explains how Humean scepticism, German biblical criticism, the failure of deism, and the rise of science, seem to have all hit their mark as belief came to be viewed as untenable, or worse -- unsophisticated. While intellectual qualms could always be explained away by fashionable argument, emotional needs and intuitive doubts, it seems, were not so easily dismissed. Again and again thinkers found themselves in the twilight land of agnosticism.

This twilight funeral land, suitably amplified by technology, seems to be the modern dilemma as well. Our thinkers, still in thrall to 19th century visions of the future, seem to have failed to understand the extent and depth to which humans are spiritual beings. Without the guidance that these thinkers can provide -- sound and reasonable thought -- the rest of mankind has failed in its search, carried out in every ridiculous nook and debasing cranny, for sustaining spiritual sustenance.

Who would think that a tour of 19th century British intellectual history would be too fascinating to put down? But that's the case with Wilson's review of the Victorians, which posits that the loss of faith in literal religion - "Doubt" - was the defining experience of the era. Sound dry? In other hands it might be, but the author's voice, urbane, witty (but never snooty) makes this a real page-turner. Wilson never condescends to his subjects, but rather stimulates the reader's historical imagination and sympathy for men and women struggling with now distant issues. If you think the religious opinions of Carlyle and Eliot are irrelevant, if you think the difference between two 19th century biographies of Jesus are arcane, if you think a book on such topics would send you off to dreamland, be warned: Wilson's magnetic style will keep you reading long after you planned to turn off the light.

"God's Funeral" by A. N. Wilson is an idiosyncratic journey through the lives of various intellectuals of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the process Wilson cannot seem to make up his mind as to whether he wishes to investigate their influence regarding the 19th century's loss of faith in God (Hume and Kant) or whether he wishes to merely look at the more personal side of these people and depict their own intellectual crisis. In the end he tends more toward the biographical and the book seems more a collection of brief vignettes on the lives and personal crises of people like Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, Ernest Renan, Benjamin Jowett, Algernon Swinburne, George Eliot, and William James. The work is far from being an intellectual history.

That being said, "God's Funeral" is worth reading and in many respects quite interesting. It does present the more personal side of the 19th century's loss of faith. The crisis for these intellectuals is found in their question, "How could one be a Christian without committing intellectual suicide?" Wilson demonstrates a sensitivity to their dilemma and the intellecual capacity to comprehend their ideas and milieu. (The only exception to this is his complete misunderstanding of Freud and his legacy!). Still, I would recommend the book as light but interesting reading.