beyond wishful thinking 61
vision of the world and an imperative of existence that lies at the heart
of religion, it degenerates into didacticism. It then degrades its trans-
forming power.
Politics, represented and conducted in a visionary voice, may relate
the reordering of society to a view of the ascent of humanity. Notwith-
standing the potential scope of our po liti cal beliefs and aspirations, no
program for social improvement is capable of bearing the full weight of
our ultimate anxieties about us. If made to do so, the result is likely to
be mystifi cation in the ser vice of oppression.
Religion has no unchanging essence, any more than philosophy, art,
or politics. Like them, it is a historical construction and part of the self-
making of humanity. Nevertheless, as we have constructed it and as it
has constructed us, it cannot without danger and illusion be replaced
by these other forms of experience. We must reckon with religion, and
decide what to make it of it: what to turn it into, now.