CLUTTON-BROCK, ARTHUR. What is the kingdom of Heaven? *$1.75 Scribner 230
(Eng ed A20–528)
“‘Is the universe a fraud?’ is the question which Mr Clutton-Brock asks and tries to answer in this book. Is life as we know it a welter of pain and evil, a vast and stupid joke; or is there some sense, some moral principle, behind this seeming chaos? We all desire to believe that our private virtues rhyme with something in the universe. We can be convinced that they do, and we can make the conviction come true in fact, says Mr Brock, by believing in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is a relation of man to the universe analogous to the relation of man to art—a relation at once passionately intimate and disinterested. The Kingdom of Heaven in politics means the disappearance of struggle and competition, in the individual the beginning of happiness.”—Ath
“Mr Brock writes in such a way that it is often possible to wonder whether his words have any very exact meaning, or whether they are merely symbols fluttering in the void, searching vainly for some solid reality on which to repose themselves.”
− Ath p315 My 19 ’19 180w
Reviewed by Bertrand Russell
Ath p487 Je 20 ’19 1700w
“It is a passionate and beautiful treatment of Jesus and his chief doctrine, bearing the mark of the artist and the prophet. This book must be read slowly, reflected upon earnestly; it is a significant discussion of a supreme subject.”
+ Bib World 54:643 N ’20 330w