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H. L. Mencken

Treatise on the Gods (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) Paperback – October 2, 2006

by H. L. Mencken (Author)

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With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken’s death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection, newly packaged editions of nine Mencken classics: Happy Days, Heathen Days, Newspaper Days, Prejudices, Treatise on the Gods, On Politics, Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work, Minority Report, and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy.

Controversial even before it was published in 1930, Treatise on the Gods collects Mencken’s scathing commentary on religion.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 2, 2006
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

6 x 0.76 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0801885361
ISBN-13

978-0801885365
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Editorial Reviews

Book Description

With a style that combined biting sarcasm with the "language of the free lunch counter," Henry Louis Mencken shook politics and politicians for nearly half a century. Now, fifty years after Mencken’s death, the Johns Hopkins University Press announces The Buncombe Collection, newly packaged editions of nine Mencken classics: Happy Days, Heathen Days, Newspaper Days, Prejudices, Treatise on the Gods, On Politics, Thirty-Five Years of Newspaper Work, Minority Report, and A Second Mencken Chrestomathy.

About the Author

Henry Louis Mencken was born in Baltimore in 1880 and remained a lifelong resident.Opinionated and controversial, his columns for the Baltimore Evening Sun earned him a national reputation. He died in 1956.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ JHUP; 2nd Revised ed. edition (October 2, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801885361
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801885365
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.76 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,217,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,169 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)
- #2,394 in American Fiction Anthologies
- #3,709 in American Literature Criticism

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38 ratings

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Ryan M

Defacto best book I've ever read on the subject of Gods

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2010

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I read this book a few years ago but am reading it again and wanted to share my views. I love how Mencken develops a very logical theory on how god and religion were created. It's certainly more logical than actually believing in one of the thousands of gods that have existed throughout the history of man.

While the theory is great, the facts about the different gods and religions is fascinating. I wonder if Christians knew that the story of Jesus was essentially the same story as many other previous religions just re-wrapped with new names if they would still be so faithful? Just as gods come and go, another religion will eventually replace Christianity and the believers of that new god will call those who believe in Christianity fools.

I often wondered as a child why people would accept Christianity just because they are geographically born in a certain location that is mostly Christian. The same can be said for any religion.

If I'm an atheist and you consider yourself a believer, you are actually an atheist as well, you just believe in one more god than I do. I reject your god for the same reason you reject Zeus, Ra, Osiris, Amen, Isis, Tezcatlipoca, Vinitius, Horus, Aton, etc. etc. etc. etc..

16 people found this helpful

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Not For the Theologically Sensitive

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2005

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Pleasant, easy to read, and thorough overview of religion from the beginning of humanity, with an emphasis on Christianity, from the position of an atheist.

From the preface: "My book is mainly factual. Its purpose is simply to get together, in handy and I hope readable form, the material data about the embryology, anatomy, and physiology of theology, with an occasional glance at its pathology....Religion was invented by man just as agriculture and the wheel were invented by man, and there is absolutely nothing in it to justify the belief that its inventors had the aid of higher powers, whether on this earth or elsewhere....There is no purpose here to shake the faithful, for I am completely free of the messianic itch..."

Chapter I "Its Nature and Origin" - Mencken describes his view of how early priests came into being in prehistoric society: "One Spring there came great rains in the valley and on their heels a flood of melting snow...One night the flood rolled into the lowermost cave, cut off the occupants, and drowned a mother and her child...The rising water to them seemed like a living thing...One fellow steps boldly forth...He goes close to the edge and bombards his enemy with stones...Growing bolder, he stalks into the water and belabors it with his club...the next morning the flood begins to recede...This first priest could accomplish something that other men were incapable of...What more natural than to give thanks?...True religion was born at that moment...He took on the aloof, philosophical air of a dermatologist contemplating a rash: he learned how to avoid making promises and yet hold the confidence of his customers... He gave some thought to the form and content of his first incantations, and thereby invented the first ritual...The gift of blarney went with the sacerdotal office, in the early days as now...the new trade of priesthood had attractions that were plainly visible to any bright and ambitious young man...When he let it be known that there were certain things, done by the people, that would gratify the gods and insure their aid, these things began to be regarded as virtuous, upright, moral. When he announced that other things were frowned upon, they straightaway became sins...The priest found himself a law-giver...Did the fires rage and the sky remain dry? Then it was because the faithful had forgotten their plain duties...It was not the priest's fault...calamities were plentiful in those days, as they are now. They remain the most potent weapons in the armamentarium of the priest...Theologians, as a class, are practical men. Immortality, as they preach it in the modern world, is but little more than a handy device for giving force and effect to their system of transcendental jurisprudence: what it amounts to is simply a threat that the contumacious will not be able to escape them by dying...I am myself a theologian of considerable gifts, and yet I can no more imagine immortality than I can imagine the Void which existed before matter took form. Neither, I suspect, can the Pope."

Chapter II "Its Evolution," continues as an academic treatise, but sprinkled liberally with condescending and clever phraseology: About creation myths: "In no department of theology is there a vaster accumulation of amusing rubbish." About afterlife: "Even in India, the very gonad of theology..." About contradictions in the Bible: "The collection of tracts called the New Testament is so full of inconsistencies and other absurdities that even children in Sunday School notice them."

Chapter III "Its Varieties" is a study of comparative religions. This is a well-done academic piece with fewer "Mencke-isms."

Chapter IV "Its Christian Form" is a beautifully written history of Christianity, highly complimentary of the Old Testament as poetry and Literature, and is the best chapter in the book. He reviews the well-accepted J, E, D, & P authorship of the Torah, with brief mention of how it was compiled. (for more info on this, read "Who Wrote the Bible," by Friedman). This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. According to the bibliography, he gets much of his factual material from James Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.

Chapter V "Its State Today," resumes "Menckeisms," such as, "The church as an organization has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions."

I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining and informative book and highly recommend it. For a different approach to the same subject, I recommend Atran's book, "In Gods We Trust."

32 people found this helpful

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Robby Robot

An Overlooked Masterpiece of The 20th Century

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2018

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Wow. 1930's social critic Mencken rips into the established religions with astonishing wit and intelligence. Mencken makes many well thought out points, such as "What lies under the horror of pretentious religious blabbing is the deepest and most widespread of human weaknesses; intellectual cowardice, and the fear of thinking things out." As fresh and relevant today as it was in the 1930's, especially with the troubles caused in so many places by true believers in Islam.

2 people found this helpful

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Enterprizing Man

A Beginner For Agnostics

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2011

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Over the years this is probably the tenth or more copy of "Treatise On The Gods" (TOTG) I have purchased. I collect all books by and about H. L. Mencken (HLM). If a friend expresses an interest in HLM, I give him a copy because this is the most complete survey of all the Gods who have ever lived (and died). And they are all pretty much the same; in their demands, in their outlooks on life and their ability to create and destroy. Yaway (today's big time God) was the best at this. I give copies of TOTG away to fellow non-believers and grandsons who have to read it if they want any more money from me. Mencken maintained he was an agnostic, but I believe he was a thorough-going atheist. Not the suit-filing kind of atheist (10 commandments in the Court House, Ave Maria at high school graduation etc.) but one who believed and lived by Commandments 5 through 10. You don't have to be a Jew or a Christian to have ethics and live by certain decent standards. Mencken was a Conservative/Libertarian, one of the very few in democratic Christendom. When you get through with this epic, order "Treatise On Right and Wrong," another and even better book on religion and right and wrong.

8 people found this helpful

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Mr. Baker

This should be read by you.

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2013

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The opening Chapter is entitled "It's Nature and Origin" and is propably the best and most concise account of what religion is, how it came to be and why we don't need it. It is insightful, enlightening, cheerful, honest and hilarious. I laughed till I nearly cried at Mencken's straightforward and clear cut understanding of what religion is really all about. A must read for anyone and everyone.

6 people found this helpful

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Kristy S. Hamilton

Mencken on the foundations of religion.

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2019

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Interesting and entertaining on every page. Delightful!

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2015

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This is the best historical look at religion you can find. Mencken will illuminate your vocabulary and stimulate your intellect while thoroughly entertaining and informing you. Henry Louis rocks! Too bad we don't have anyone like him today.

5 people found this helpful

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Carol Browning

Treatise on the Gods

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2013

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I understand that Mencken viewed this as one of his greatest successes. I don't know if I wholly concur. It started out well with cogent arguments but failed to sustain that same level of interest for me. Still, it was entertaining as Mencken always is.

2 people found this helpful

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