Frank Besant This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Alpheus--Annie Besant's Quest for Truth

   www.alpheus.org/html/articles/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/26/2006   Last Visited: 12/17/2007

   Besant, however, doted on their two children. Then, in 1871, the younger child fell violently ill and Besant herself collapsed in exhaustion after she had nursed the child back to health. Her collapse was mental as well as physical. An unhappy marriage had set her thinking about suffering in the world, and her daughter's agony had reinforced her puzzlement. How, she wondered, could a merciful God allow such pain? Her struggle with doubt lasted just over three years and nearly cost her her life through both illness and suicide. No other time in her much varied life was of such importance. 'It was a hell to live through,' she later recalled:
   ...
   When Besant ceased to judge her beliefs in terms of revealed religion, she elevated truth into an almost religious ideal to be put before all other considerations. Thus, when people later attacked her atheism as negative, she replied that humans should live in accord with truth, not superstition: 'it is an error,' she explained, 'to regard my truth as negative and barren, for all truth is positive and fruitful'. Truth provided an ideal by which to live one's life. She even wanted her tomb to bear the epitaph 'She Tried To Follow Truth.' More particularly, an account of the physical nature of the universe could not be considered true unless it were compatible with modern science and especially a theory of evolution. She had rejected Christianity because the supernatural revelations of the Bible did not accord with the empirical discoveries of the natural and human sciences. From now on, she would accept only natural accounts of the universe. Supernatural explanations were unacceptable.
   
   Besant did not suffer from scientific doubts alone. Her concerns were also moral. Here she strove to reconcile theological doctrines such as vicarious atonement and eternal punishment with what she took to be the necessary characteristics of a world made by a just and loving God. She believed the dogma of the atonement contained vital moral truths: the life of Christ revealed both an impulse to self-sacrifice and the willingness of the strong to help the weak. Yet the moral core of the dogma was surrounded by rotten, immoral pulp. The very idea that we needed to atone for our sins implied God was sufficiently vengeful and cruel to require us to pay Him off with pain and anguish. Besides, she could think of no moral grounds on which God could hold us to blame for our sins when we were only what He had made us. And anyway, the vicarious nature of Christ's atonement vitiated any moral content in the sacrifice since there was no justice when 'the person sacrificed is not even the guilty party'. The doctrine of eternal punishment was worse still; it lacked even a core of moral truth; it was 'thoroughly and essentially bad'. Besant revolted against the idea that individuals could spend eternity suffering for finite sins with neither a chance to repent nor any prospect of their situation improving no matter how righteous or moral they might become. Once again, God could not be as vengeful and cruel as the Bible suggested. Besant's final moral qualm centred on the old problem of a loving and omnipotent God overlooking an evil world. Together these considerations led her to conclude Christianity was false. One Christian doctrine - the belief in a moral God - contradicted not only other Christian doctrines - the vicarious atonement and eternal damnation - but also observable fact - the existence of evil.
   
   The moral doubts from which Besant suffered established definite criteria for an adequate theory of the moral nature of the universe. In general, she picked up the typical Victorian concern with preserving morality in a secularised society, and the associated humanitarian concern with social duty. As a child, she had looked on the poor as people in need of education and charity but little more. Now her loss of faith changed her attitude. She became more concerned to foster our sense of social duty and more humanitarian in her understanding of our social duty. The 'keynote' of her life became a 'longing for sacrifice to something felt as greater than the self', and this something was defined by an ethical positivism which opened her ears 'to the wailings of the great orphan humanity'. More particularly, she wanted to be able to declare: 'I believe that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; I believe that all mankind is safe, cradled in the everlasting arms.' Her denunciation of the atonement indicated a moral universe would be one in which people ultimately got what they deserved. Her rejection of eternal punishment implied that a moral universe would hold out the possibility of vanquishing evil. And her qualms about the compatibility of a loving God and the existence of evil pointed to the need for a natural, not a supernatural, explanation of the moral state of the universe, an explanation demonstrating the natural necessity of evil, rather than portraying evil as something allowed by an omnipotent God.
   ...
   The whole Victorian crisis of faith resembled Besant's in that it arose not from attacks on all possible forms of Christianity but rather from a series of challenges to Biblical literalism and atonement theology.
   
   So, although Besant's descent into doubt paralleled a transformation in her personal life, her intellectual struggle resembles that of many of her contemporaries. Cultural developments - the rise of modern science, historical scholarship, and a new moral conscience - put pressure on Victorian religion. Although numerous Victorians experienced much the same crisis of faith as did Besant, they reacted to it in various different ways.
   ...
   In order to understand why Besant made the choices she did, why she responded to the general Victorian crisis of faith in some ways and not others, we need to explore the social and cultural pressures working upon her. Her particular situation shaped the choices she made by more or less closing off some options and by opening up others. Arguably the most important influence on her choices was the evangelical temper in which she had been raised. Victorian culture as a whole was dominated by evangelical notions of truth and duty; a meaningful order of things defined one's own purpose and responsibilities. As Besant turned away from Christianity, so she clung all the more tenaciously to these notions. Her upbringing, and the general culture of her times, committed her to a modernist faith in fixed meanings. There was little likelihood of her seriously contemplating, let alone accepting, the sort of truthless, arguably amoral, universe since made familiar by Nietzsche. More particularly, the evangelical temper continued to influence her adherence to a truth defined as the purpose to which she should sacrifice her life. The meaning of things imposed upon us a rigorous duty, verging on complete self-denial for the sake of others. Here too Besant surely exemplifies the whole Victorian crisis of faith. No matter how people responded to the contemporary challenges to Biblical literalism and atonement theology, they nearly always did so in ways that gave a central place to concepts such as truth and sacrifice. Indeed, the ubiquity and strength among Victorians of a belief in a meaningful order imposing a stringent duty on the individual constitutes a crucial part of what divides them from us. Their commitment to a Truth requiring Sacrifice constitutes a crucial part of what makes them other than us.
   
   It is precisely because a commitment to Truth and Duty characterised almost all of the religious and social movements of Victorian Britain that we can not appeal to it to explain why Besant ended up in the movements she did. To explain this we must look at more specific influences upon her. First, however, I should make it clear I do not think social and cultural influences can explain anyone's decisions fully. They can help us to understand why someone was likely to make a particular decision, but they can not explain every detail of the decision, and not everyone who is subject to them need make that particular decision. Thus, George Eliot had a crisis of faith under similar influences to Besant, and yet she made somewhat different decisions. The fact is social and cultural influences are only influences; they are not determining or decisive causes. That said, one influence more specific to Besant was her social background. On the one hand, she came from the educated and leisured class that provided the theorists and critics of Victorian Society. Her father studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and worked as a doctor, until the Irish Famine of 1845 saw him leave for London where he became an underwriter.
   ...
   On the other hand, Besant was a woman, and this simple fact debarred her from the traditional centres of intellectual life in Britain. When, in 1878, she began to study in an attempt to enrol on a degree course at London University, it was only a year after the University had become the first to agree to admit women, and by then she already had become a famous agitator. Besant's lack of formal education - she did not sit a public exa

2. 2. Alpheus--Annie Besant's Quest for Truth

   www.alpheus.org/html/articles/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/26/2006   Last Visited: 12/17/2007

   Besant, however, doted on their two children. Then, in 1871, the younger child fell violently ill and Besant herself collapsed in exhaustion after she had nursed the child back to health. Her collapse was mental as well as physical. An unhappy marriage had set her thinking about suffering in the world, and her daughter's agony had reinforced her puzzlement. How, she wondered, could a merciful God allow such pain? Her struggle with doubt lasted just over three years and nearly cost her her life through both illness and suicide. No other time in her much varied life was of such importance. 'It was a hell to live through,' she later recalled:
   ...
   When Besant ceased to judge her beliefs in terms of revealed religion, she elevated truth into an almost religious ideal to be put before all other considerations. Thus, when people later attacked her atheism as negative, she replied that humans should live in accord with truth, not superstition: 'it is an error,' she explained, 'to regard my truth as negative and barren, for all truth is positive and fruitful'. Truth provided an ideal by which to live one's life. She even wanted her tomb to bear the epitaph 'She Tried To Follow Truth.' More particularly, an account of the physical nature of the universe could not be considered true unless it were compatible with modern science and especially a theory of evolution. She had rejected Christianity because the supernatural revelations of the Bible did not accord with the empirical discoveries of the natural and human sciences. From now on, she would accept only natural accounts of the universe. Supernatural explanations were unacceptable.
   
   Besant did not suffer from scientific doubts alone. Her concerns were also moral. Here she strove to reconcile theological doctrines such as vicarious atonement and eternal punishment with what she took to be the necessary characteristics of a world made by a just and loving God. She believed the dogma of the atonement contained vital moral truths: the life of Christ revealed both an impulse to self-sacrifice and the willingness of the strong to help the weak. Yet the moral core of the dogma was surrounded by rotten, immoral pulp. The very idea that we needed to atone for our sins implied God was sufficiently vengeful and cruel to require us to pay Him off with pain and anguish. Besides, she could think of no moral grounds on which God could hold us to blame for our sins when we were only what He had made us. And anyway, the vicarious nature of Christ's atonement vitiated any moral content in the sacrifice since there was no justice when 'the person sacrificed is not even the guilty party'. The doctrine of eternal punishment was worse still; it lacked even a core of moral truth; it was 'thoroughly and essentially bad'. Besant revolted against the idea that individuals could spend eternity suffering for finite sins with neither a chance to repent nor any prospect of their situation improving no matter how righteous or moral they might become. Once again, God could not be as vengeful and cruel as the Bible suggested. Besant's final moral qualm centred on the old problem of a loving and omnipotent God overlooking an evil world. Together these considerations led her to conclude Christianity was false. One Christian doctrine - the belief in a moral God - contradicted not only other Christian doctrines - the vicarious atonement and eternal damnation - but also observable fact - the existence of evil.
   
   The moral doubts from which Besant suffered established definite criteria for an adequate theory of the moral nature of the universe. In general, she picked up the typical Victorian concern with preserving morality in a secularised society, and the associated humanitarian concern with social duty. As a child, she had looked on the poor as people in need of education and charity but little more. Now her loss of faith changed her attitude. She became more concerned to foster our sense of social duty and more humanitarian in her understanding of our social duty. The 'keynote' of her life became a 'longing for sacrifice to something felt as greater than the self', and this something was defined by an ethical positivism which opened her ears 'to the wailings of the great orphan humanity'. More particularly, she wanted to be able to declare: 'I believe that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all; I believe that all mankind is safe, cradled in the everlasting arms.' Her denunciation of the atonement indicated a moral universe would be one in which people ultimately got what they deserved. Her rejection of eternal punishment implied that a moral universe would hold out the possibility of vanquishing evil. And her qualms about the compatibility of a loving God and the existence of evil pointed to the need for a natural, not a supernatural, explanation of the moral state of the universe, an explanation demonstrating the natural necessity of evil, rather than portraying evil as something allowed by an omnipotent God.
   ...
   The whole Victorian crisis of faith resembled Besant's in that it arose not from attacks on all possible forms of Christianity but rather from a series of challenges to Biblical literalism and atonement theology.
   
   So, although Besant's descent into doubt paralleled a transformation in her personal life, her intellectual struggle resembles that of many of her contemporaries. Cultural developments - the rise of modern science, historical scholarship, and a new moral conscience - put pressure on Victorian religion. Although numerous Victorians experienced much the same crisis of faith as did Besant, they reacted to it in various different ways.
   ...
   In order to understand why Besant made the choices she did, why she responded to the general Victorian crisis of faith in some ways and not others, we need to explore the social and cultural pressures working upon her. Her particular situation shaped the choices she made by more or less closing off some options and by opening up others. Arguably the most important influence on her choices was the evangelical temper in which she had been raised. Victorian culture as a whole was dominated by evangelical notions of truth and duty; a meaningful order of things defined one's own purpose and responsibilities. As Besant turned away from Christianity, so she clung all the more tenaciously to these notions. Her upbringing, and the general culture of her times, committed her to a modernist faith in fixed meanings. There was little likelihood of her seriously contemplating, let alone accepting, the sort of truthless, arguably amoral, universe since made familiar by Nietzsche. More particularly, the evangelical temper continued to influence her adherence to a truth defined as the purpose to which she should sacrifice her life. The meaning of things imposed upon us a rigorous duty, verging on complete self-denial for the sake of others. Here too Besant surely exemplifies the whole Victorian crisis of faith. No matter how people responded to the contemporary challenges to Biblical literalism and atonement theology, they nearly always did so in ways that gave a central place to concepts such as truth and sacrifice. Indeed, the ubiquity and strength among Victorians of a belief in a meaningful order imposing a stringent duty on the individual constitutes a crucial part of what divides them from us. Their commitment to a Truth requiring Sacrifice constitutes a crucial part of what makes them other than us.
   
   It is precisely because a commitment to Truth and Duty characterised almost all of the religious and social movements of Victorian Britain that we can not appeal to it to explain why Besant ended up in the movements she did. To explain this we must look at more specific influences upon her. First, however, I should make it clear I do not think social and cultural influences can explain anyone's decisions fully. They can help us to understand why someone was likely to make a particular decision, but they can not explain every detail of the decision, and not everyone who is subject to them need make that particular decision. Thus, George Eliot had a crisis of faith under similar influences to Besant, and yet she made somewhat different decisions. The fact is social and cultural influences are only influences; they are not determining or decisive causes. That said, one influence more specific to Besant was her social background. On the one hand, she came from the educated and leisured class that provided the theorists and critics of Victorian Society. Her father studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and worked as a doctor, until the Irish Famine of 1845 saw him leave for London where he became an underwriter.
   ...
   On the other hand, Besant was a woman, and this simple fact debarred her from the traditional centres of intellectual life in Britain. When, in 1878, she began to study in an attempt to enrol on a degree course at London University, it was only a year after the University had become the first to agree to admit women, and by then she already had become a famous agitator. Besant's lack of formal education - she did not sit a public exa