What do you think of Blake's version of Christianity?

Question

William Blake (1757-1827) "abhorred slavery and believed in racial and sexual equality." "He rejected all forms of imposed authority."

' Prisons are built with stones of Law,
Brothels with bricks of Religion and
As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."

Blake said he had to create a System, or be enslav'd by another Man's."

One of Blake's strongest objections to orthodox Christianity is that he felt it encouraged the suppression of natural desires and discouraged earthly joy.

He did not hold with the doctrine of God as a Lord, an entity separate from and superior to mankind. This is very much in line with his belief in liberty and equality in society and between the sexes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake

Answer 1

His is a voice of reason; a voice for equality; a voice for independent thinking; he was a real prophet, a word which is thrown around loosely too often....

Answer 2

William Blake is an interesting guy. I think he was mentally unstable. He shows no evidence of being able to reconcile the contradictions he had to deal with in order to achieve peace. I wonder if he was a stoner toking while he wrote poetry as Samuel Taylor Coleridge apparently did.

Blake's commitment to Christianity comes out in "The Lamb" and in other lines yet he is manifestly skeptical of clergy and of Puritanical morality - the "priests in black gowns" taking away his "joys and desires," and the naughty angel who steals the peach and ravishes the "holy and meek" maiden.

Blake is so blindly hostile to Rousseau and Voltaire that I have to suspect he is suppressing a secret admiration for them. I think Blake and Voltaire would have enjoyed instant rapport if they had met.

In "The Philosophy of Humanism," Corliss Lamont says that generations of modern Humanists have found inspiration in Blake's "Milton" - the passion to build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land, calling for "my chariot of fire."

Blake is clearly universalist or pantheist in "And all must love the human form, In Heathen, Turk or Jew. Where Mercy, Love and Pity dwell, There God is dwelling too." ("The Divine Image"). This is a striking contrast to the prevalent attitude of Christians at the time that Muslims and Jews were lost sinners who rejected Jesus and were sorely in need of proselytization and conversion with the Gospel.

So I don't think Blake himself ever figured out what "his version of Christianity" was. Instead, he had a lot of contradictory currents of ideas about it running through his stormy mind and he never sorted them out. Although he never found peace he give us some terrific poetry while he was struggling with his contradictions.

Answer 3

I think his is much better than the present version. I fully agree with the bit about creating a system or be enslaved by another's. Words to live by.

"Men are admitted into Heaven not because they have curbed & govern'd their Passions or have No Passions, but because they have Cultivated their Understandings. The Treasures of Heaven are not Negations of Passion, but Realities of Intellect, from which all the Passions Emanate Uncurbed in their Eternal Glory..."

I'm not a christian but you can't ignore the truth in this regardless of your religious orientation.

Answer 4

even writers and poets have a mind to speak...dosnt mean they are wrong. personally i think he spoke some good stuff! a real thinker...i like him!

Answer 5

Way to go Blakey boy!

Answer 6

he was a writer or a poet from what i know

Answer 7

accurate

Answer 8

doesn't sound like a Christian to me.