“We have war, injustice, and unhappiness
because our way of life is founded on mistaken beliefs.”
This quotation by William Blake set me thinking and distracted me from my actual project: I wanted to write an essay on a poem. But during my work I, fortunately, ended up in a chaos of philosophical questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Is our universe only a dust particle of something larger? Is there a force guiding us? Who or what is God?
From time immemorial, people have been racking their brains over these ageless and puzzling questions, and I doubt whether we are able to provide convincing responses to them. Someone who might give us a wise answer is William Blake (1757–1827). He is considered to be the first major Romantic poet, and a central theme of his works is religion (e.g. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Book of Urizen). Admittedly, there is no easy access to Blake because he is one of the most obscure and inscrutable poets. Nevertheless, I would like to make the daring attempt to uncover the secrets of Blake’s religious mysticism. For this reason, I will discuss one of his first works There Is No Natural Religion (1788).
My design is to make this essay accessible to a wide readership, especially to those who have so far avoided profoundly dealing with a particular topic: religion. I also had no serious interest in religion at all – until I started to learn Arabic. Once you have mastered “Allah’s difficult but most ornate language”, you have got a completely different outlook on the world. Beside this, I felt an urgent personal need to deal with the concept of faith in greater detail. This has in part something to do with the changing idea and role of religion in the 21st century. Unfortunately, a number of armed conflicts have been provoked grounded on disagreements between several religious groups, and since September 11 people fear that a potential third world war will be a war of religions, a war between cultures. So this subject is of utmost relevance to the current events.
I hope to provide a vivid, comprehensible and, above all, stimulating and entertaining essay. Keywords that I put in italics serve as a guide through our discussion. So let’s begin and explore the (still) unknown spheres of religion. William Blake will give us a hand.
At a glance
- Grade: 1.0 (1.0 is the best grade)
- Appendix reproduces Blake’s There Is No Natural Religion and London
- Interprets selected propositions from Blake’s There Is No Natural Religion
- Discusses Blake’s London in relation to the established Church
- 15 sources in the bibliography
Table of Contents
1. Preface
2. Basic Concepts
3. The Image of God
4. Blake and the Deists
5. There Is No Natural Religion
6. Blake and the Church
7. Final Remarks
Aim and Themes
This essay introduces William Blake’s religious mysticism to a broad readership, asking how his ideas about God, perception and imagination challenge natural religion and conventional religious authority. It approaches these questions through selected propositions from There Is No Natural Religion and a discussion of the poem London.
- Atheism, agnosticism, deism and theism
- Images and concepts of God
- Blake’s opposition to deism and natural religion
- Sense perception, intuition, reason and imagination
- Blake’s criticism of the established Church
Excerpt from the Book
5. There Is No Natural Religion
There Is No Natural Religion is a two-series collection of 16 aphorisms (see Appendix) and “announces an attack on the deistic and atheistic notion that ‘natural religion’ is an Enlightened alternative to the ‘revealed religion’ of ecclesiastical and scriptural authority” (Johnson/Grant 1979, 12). Does this imply Blake sympathized with the Christian Church? Not really, as we will see later.
Undoubtedly, it would be an exciting undertaking to look at all 16 aphorisms in depth, but this would go far beyond the scope of our discussion. So let us pick out only some of Blake’s propositions, as they are called.
Series [a] begins with The Argument. Blake claims: Man has no notion of moral fitness but from Education. Naturally he is only a natural organ subject to Sense. The idea of education is, in my view, not used in the sense we understand it today (school, college, university), but in the sense of “development of character or mental powers” (OCD 1995, 431). So well-developed mental skills lead to the ability to distinguish right and wrong (“moral fitness”). This competence is essential for daily life. We constantly follow social rules and conventions, they influence our actions.
In Blake’s second statement the concept of sense is of utmost importance, referring to sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. They are “instruments” we perceive the world with. This perception is sensory and result in mental processes – the prerequisite for contemplation and forming opinions.
What I find very interesting is Blake’s description of man as a natural organ. This leads us to the idea of God: in the Bible it states that humans were created in the image of God – not vice versa. Since natural organs, and thus man, consist of cells and tissue, they are finite. So a human-like being could not be God because God is infinite (or eternal).
The propositions that follow the Argument “are dedicated to overcoming the theory that humanity is or should be limited to what it perceives through the five senses [...]. This is merely the ‘ratio’, or ‘rational reflection’ upon accumulated sense-date” (Johnson/Grant 1979, 12). Once again, this statement is an evidence for Blake’s disbelief in reason alone: in the first assertion of series [b] he says: Man’s perceptions are not bounded by organs of perception. He perceives more than sense ... can discover. So there must be an innate aptitude beyond our five senses. But what is it? Here is the answer: it is the “supposed faculty giving intuitive or extrasensory knowledge” (COD 1995, 1299), generally known as the sixth sense: instinct, or intuition.
Chapter Summaries
1. Preface: The author introduces the personal questions and interests that prompted the essay and explains its accessible approach to Blake’s religious ideas.
2. Basic Concepts: The chapter introduces religion and distinguishes atheism, agnosticism, deism and theism according to their positions on God and divine influence.
3. The Image of God: The author reflects on childhood and philosophical images of God, divine attributes and the role of human imagination.
4. Blake and the Deists: This chapter places Blake’s opposition to deism alongside accounts of his early visions and the emergence of his religious mysticism.
5. There Is No Natural Religion: Selected propositions provide a basis for discussing education, the senses, intuition, imagination and reason.
6. Blake and the Church: The author considers the relationship between religion and institutional Christianity and reads London as a critique of Church and State.
7. Final Remarks: The essay closes with reflections on Blake’s religious mysticism, belief and enduring questions about the universe.
Keywords
William Blake, religious mysticism, natural religion, deism, theism, atheism, agnosticism, God, imagination, reason, intuition, sensory perception, Christianity, London
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this essay about?
It explores William Blake’s religious ideas and uses his writing to consider belief, God and human perception.
What are its central themes?
Its themes include natural religion, deism, religious belief, imagination, the senses and the relationship between religion and the Church.
What is the essay’s primary aim?
It aims to introduce Blake’s religious mysticism to a broad readership through an accessible discussion of his ideas.
What scholarly method does the author use?
The author offers an interpretive literary and philosophical discussion of selected passages, drawing on reference works and published commentary.
What does the main discussion cover?
It moves from basic religious concepts and images of God to Blake’s response to deism, selected aphorisms and his attitude toward the Church.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include religious mysticism, natural religion, deism, imagination, reason, intuition and sensory perception.
How does the essay approach There Is No Natural Religion?
It examines selected propositions from both series and considers their implications for education, perception and imagination.
Why does the author discuss London?
The poem provides a basis for discussing Blake’s criticism of the established Church and its relationship with social and political power.
How are different religious positions introduced?
Atheism, agnosticism, deism and theism are compared in relation to belief in God and divine influence on the world.
- Quote paper
- Steffen Laaß (Author), 2004, William Blake - a literary figure to approach religion, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/70852
