Androcles and the Lion (Shaw)/Preface to Androcles and the Lion

Preface to Androcles and the Lion: on the Prospects of Christianity  (1912)  by George Bernard Shaw

For the author's play, see: Androcles and the Lion, 1912

On the Prospects of Christianity

• Why not give Christianity a Trial?
• Why Jesus more than Another?
• Was Jesus a Coward?
• Was Jesus a Martyr?
• The Gospels without Prejudice
• The Gospels now unintelligible to Novices
• Worldliness of the Majority
• Religion of the Minority. Salvationism
• The Difference between Atonement and Punishment
• Salvation at first a Class Privilege; and the Remedy
• Retrospective Atonement; and the Expectation of the Redeemer
• Completion of the Scheme by Luther and Calvin
• John Barleycorn
• Looking for the End of the World
• The Honor of Divine Parentage

Matthew

• The Annunciation, the Massacre, the Flight
• John the Baptist
• Jesus joins the Baptists
• The Savage John and the Civilized Jesus
• Jesus not a Proselytist
• The Teachings of Jesus
• The Miracles
• Matthew imputes Bigotry to Jesus
• The Great Change
• Jerusalem and the Mystical Sacrifice
• Not this Man but Barabbas
• The Resurrection
• Date of Matthew's Narrative
• Class Type of Matthew's Jesus

Mark

• The Women Disciples and the Ascension

Luke

• Luke the Literary Artist
• The Charm of Luke's Narrative
• The Touch of Parisian Romance
• Waiting for the Messiah

John

• A New Story and a New Character
• John the Immortal Eye Witness
• The Peculiar Theology of Jesus
• John agreed as to the Trial and Crucifixion

Christianity

• Credibility of the Gospels
• Fashions of Belief
• Credibility and Truth
• Christian Iconolatry and the Peril of the Iconoclast
• The Alternative to Barabbas
• The Reduction to Modern Practice of Christianity
• Modern Communism
• Redistribution
• Shall He Who Makes, Own?
• Labor Time
• The Dream of Distribution According to Merit
• Vital Distribution
• Equal Distribution
• The Captain and the Cabin Boy
• The Political and Biological Objections to Inequality
• Jesus as Economist
• Jesus as Biologist
• Money the Midwife of Scientific Communism
• Judge Not
• Limits to Free Will
• Jesus on Marriage and the Family
• Why Jesus did not Marry
• Inconsistency of the Sex Instinct
• For Better for Worse
• The Case for Marriage
• Celibacy no Remedy
• After the Crucifixion
• The Vindictive Miracles and the Stoning of Stephen
• Paul
• Confusion of Christendom
• Secret of Paul's Success
• Paul's Qualities
• Acts of the Apostles
• The Controversies on Baptism and Transubstantiation
• The Alternative Christs
• Credulity no Criterion
• Belief in Personal Immortality no Criterion
• The Secular View
• The Higher Criticism
• The Perils of Salvationism
• The Importance of Hell in the Salvation Scheme
• The Right to refuse Atonement
• The Teaching of Christianity
• Christianity and the Empire

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923. It may be copyrighted outside the U.S. (see Help:Public domain).