"There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it"
About this Quote
Shaw’s line is a grenade tossed into the parlor of polite pluralism: it flatters religion just enough to get invited inside, then rearranges the furniture. “Only one religion” sounds like dogma, but the punch comes in the qualifier - “though there are a hundred versions of it.” He’s not pledging allegiance to a creed; he’s stripping creeds down to their shared machinery. Shaw, the dramatist who loved exposing society’s self-serious costumes, uses the structure of a paradox to make hypocrisy look inevitable: people fight over labels while running the same human program underneath.
The specific intent is double-edged. On one side, it’s an ecumenical olive branch: if religions are versions, they’re translations of a common impulse - ethical yearning, metaphysical anxiety, communal belonging. On the other, it’s a takedown: “versions” implies branding, not revelation. A version is something you update, market, and defend for status. Shaw suggests that the sectarian fervor is less about God than about ownership.
Subtextually, the line reads like a Socialist critique of institutions: religion as a social technology that organizes obedience and identity, endlessly customizable to local power. The “hundred” is intentionally blunt - not a census but a jab at the infinite fracturing of supposed truth.
Context matters: Shaw wrote in an era when Victorian Christianity was both cultural glue and moral cudgel, while comparative religion and secular politics were rising. The wit works because it sounds conciliatory while quietly asking the uncomfortable question: if the core is the same, what exactly are we killing each other over?
The specific intent is double-edged. On one side, it’s an ecumenical olive branch: if religions are versions, they’re translations of a common impulse - ethical yearning, metaphysical anxiety, communal belonging. On the other, it’s a takedown: “versions” implies branding, not revelation. A version is something you update, market, and defend for status. Shaw suggests that the sectarian fervor is less about God than about ownership.
Subtextually, the line reads like a Socialist critique of institutions: religion as a social technology that organizes obedience and identity, endlessly customizable to local power. The “hundred” is intentionally blunt - not a census but a jab at the infinite fracturing of supposed truth.
Context matters: Shaw wrote in an era when Victorian Christianity was both cultural glue and moral cudgel, while comparative religion and secular politics were rising. The wit works because it sounds conciliatory while quietly asking the uncomfortable question: if the core is the same, what exactly are we killing each other over?
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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