Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion by Alain de Botton
Authors: Alain de Botton
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witness an involvement with more modest yet equally treacherous and combustible kinds of mistreatment. It is easy enough to declare that killing and stealing are wrong; it arguably entails a greater feat of the moral imagination to warn against the consequences of making a belittling remark or being sexually aloof.
ii. A Moral Atmosphere
1.
Christianity never minded creating a moral atmosphere in which people could point out their flaws to one another and acknowledge that there was room for improvement in their behaviour.
And, because it saw no particular difference between adults and children, Christianity never balked at offering its followers a range of star-chart equivalents to point them in honourable directions. One of the most accomplished of these is to be found in Padua, under the vaulted brick ceiling of the Scrovegni Chapel.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Florentine artistGiotto was commissioned to decorate the walls of the chapel with a series of frescoes: there were to be fourteen niches, each one containing a portrait allegorizing a different vice or virtue. On the right-hand side of the church, nearest the nave, Giotto painted the so-called cardinal virtues, Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance and Justice, followed by the Christian virtues of Faith, Charity and Hope. Directly opposite these were arrayed a matching configuration of vices: Folly, Inconstancy,Anger, Injustice, Infidelity, Envy and Despair. To each of these abstract titles, the painter appended vivid specimens to evoke viewersâ admiration and stir their guilt. Thus Anger is shown tearing apart her garments, screaming at the sky in indignant self-pity, while two niches along, Infidelity squints out with deceitful eyes. The members of the congregation were to sit in their pews and think about which of the virtues they had embraced and which of the vices they had fallen prey to, while God watched over them from the celestial sphere, stars in hand.
Giotto,
The Vices and the Virtues
, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua,
c
. 1304. ( illustration credit 3.4 )
The religious tradition to which Giottoâs star chart belonged felt comfortable in making detailed proposals about how one should behave and in distinguishing what it plainly termed good from its opposite. Depictions of vices and virtues were ubiquitous â in the backs ofBibles, in prayer books, on the walls of churches and public buildings â and their purpose was straightforwardly didactic: they were meant to provide a compass by which the faithful could steer their lives in honourable directions.
2.
By contrast with this Christian desire to generate a moral atmosphere, libertarian theorists have argued that public space should be kept neutral. There should be no reminders of kindness on the walls of our buildings or in the pages of our books. Such messages would, after all, constitute dramatic infringements on our much-prized âlibertyâ.
However, we have already seen why this concern for liberty doesnât necessarily honour our deepest wishes, given our compulsive and wayward natures. We can also now admit that, in any case, our public spaces are not even remotely neutral. They are â as a quick glance down any high street will reveal â covered with commercial messages. Even in societies theoretically dedicated to leaving us free to make our own choices, our minds are continuously manipulated in directions we hardly consciously recognize. It is sometimes said byadvertising agencies, in a prophylactic attempt at false modesty, that advertising does not really
work
. We are adults, this argument holds, and so do not lose our capacity for reason the instant we set eyes on a beautifully photographedbillboard or catalogue. It is granted that children may be less resolute and could therefore need shielding from certain messages on television before eight oâclock in the evening, lest they conceive a maniacal craving for a particular train set or
ii. A Moral Atmosphere
1.
Christianity never minded creating a moral atmosphere in which people could point out their flaws to one another and acknowledge that there was room for improvement in their behaviour.
And, because it saw no particular difference between adults and children, Christianity never balked at offering its followers a range of star-chart equivalents to point them in honourable directions. One of the most accomplished of these is to be found in Padua, under the vaulted brick ceiling of the Scrovegni Chapel.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Florentine artistGiotto was commissioned to decorate the walls of the chapel with a series of frescoes: there were to be fourteen niches, each one containing a portrait allegorizing a different vice or virtue. On the right-hand side of the church, nearest the nave, Giotto painted the so-called cardinal virtues, Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance and Justice, followed by the Christian virtues of Faith, Charity and Hope. Directly opposite these were arrayed a matching configuration of vices: Folly, Inconstancy,Anger, Injustice, Infidelity, Envy and Despair. To each of these abstract titles, the painter appended vivid specimens to evoke viewersâ admiration and stir their guilt. Thus Anger is shown tearing apart her garments, screaming at the sky in indignant self-pity, while two niches along, Infidelity squints out with deceitful eyes. The members of the congregation were to sit in their pews and think about which of the virtues they had embraced and which of the vices they had fallen prey to, while God watched over them from the celestial sphere, stars in hand.
Giotto,
The Vices and the Virtues
, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua,
c
. 1304. ( illustration credit 3.4 )
The religious tradition to which Giottoâs star chart belonged felt comfortable in making detailed proposals about how one should behave and in distinguishing what it plainly termed good from its opposite. Depictions of vices and virtues were ubiquitous â in the backs ofBibles, in prayer books, on the walls of churches and public buildings â and their purpose was straightforwardly didactic: they were meant to provide a compass by which the faithful could steer their lives in honourable directions.
2.
By contrast with this Christian desire to generate a moral atmosphere, libertarian theorists have argued that public space should be kept neutral. There should be no reminders of kindness on the walls of our buildings or in the pages of our books. Such messages would, after all, constitute dramatic infringements on our much-prized âlibertyâ.
However, we have already seen why this concern for liberty doesnât necessarily honour our deepest wishes, given our compulsive and wayward natures. We can also now admit that, in any case, our public spaces are not even remotely neutral. They are â as a quick glance down any high street will reveal â covered with commercial messages. Even in societies theoretically dedicated to leaving us free to make our own choices, our minds are continuously manipulated in directions we hardly consciously recognize. It is sometimes said byadvertising agencies, in a prophylactic attempt at false modesty, that advertising does not really
work
. We are adults, this argument holds, and so do not lose our capacity for reason the instant we set eyes on a beautifully photographedbillboard or catalogue. It is granted that children may be less resolute and could therefore need shielding from certain messages on television before eight oâclock in the evening, lest they conceive a maniacal craving for a particular train set or
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