Choice Review

What makes this study so intriguing, rare, and worthwhile is its dual focus on explication and argumentation. Baker (theater studies, Florida State Univ.) not only succeeds in explicating Shaw's religion and the views, projects, and misjudgments that flow from it--across the spectrum of a very full life--but he also argues vigorously that Shaw was absolutely right about the fundamental nature of the universe and what follows from it with respect to social policy and the good life. Shaw's religion is "remarkable," according to Baker, precisely because it constitutes "a creed that is a reasonable and practical guide to living in the real world, a faith that is completely compatible with the facts, a religion consistent with itself." And what are the "facts" with which Shaw's religion of moral equality, universal compassion, and individual responsibility is "completely compatible"?--that the universe intrinsically manifests will, value, and purpose; and that this teleological open-endedness creates nondetermined spaces within which human choice is both genuine and efficacious. Some may question the argument's cogency, or perhaps a facet of Baker's explication. But no one should doubt that this fine work belongs in every college and university library, where it will be useful to readers at all levels. H. I. Einsohn Middlesex Community College