Alain de Botton, “Religion for Everyone”, Article Review Example

De Botton observes that a secular society without religion also lacks the community religion brings (“Religion”). He notes the fact that modern, secular society is obsessed with professional success, but fails to offer us a viable sense of community. By contrast, religions offer the faithful a living community, one that bridges barriers such as ‘race’ and class to bring people together (“Religion”). For Cantwell Smith, the religious diversity of an increasingly-globalized world affords us all the opportunity to learn to coexist in harmony and mutual respect, to “transform our new world society into a world community” (12). We must learn to see people of other faiths as people who are genuinely worthy of respect and trust, and whose values are as important to them as our own (13). Without compromising our own convictions, we must seek to honor, cherish, and even defend the convictions of others (13, 92-96).

For me, both these views are quite sophisticated responses to a world that is at once increasingly pluralistic, and increasingly polarized. So many of the questions of society and politics covered in this course touch on one central question: How are we to relate to one another? De Botton’s answer is that we must first come together in a spirit of community, one that breaks down our ‘tribes’ and helps us to bond with others, thereby converting strangers into cherished friends (“Religion”). By itself, this does not and cannot resolve social and political questions; rather, it is a way of first humanizing one another (“Religion”). Smith’s argument that we should learn to understand and respect the convictions of others in order to build a society based on mutual trust, loyalty, and friendship is saying the same thing: we do not all have to agree in order to foster a sense of empathy, the ability to see the world through the eyes of another. Using community, empathy, trust, loyalty and friendship as a foundation, humanity will be much better prepared to confront social and political questions, because such a starting point will help us to see others not as alien ‘Others’, but rather as fellow human beings.

Works Cited

De Botton, Alain. “Religion for Everyone.” WSJ.com. Wall Street Journal.com, 18 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2012.

Smith, Wilfred C. The Faith of Other Men. New York: New American Library, 1962. Print.