Religio Laici; or, a Layman's Faith by John Dryden 1682
Channel: Craig Campbell
Date: 2021-04-18

John Dryden was England's first Poet Laureate. He wrote this long poem as a response to those who were criticizing the Christian religion. I like the poem and am coming to appreciate the poets more than the philosophers. It seems Christian writers have repeatedly gone over the arguments of the atheists and deists. Do they keep all the arguments against Christianity alive in this way? 


Dim as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars  To lonely, weary, wandering travellers,  Is reason to the soul: and as on high,  Those rolling fires discover but the sky,  Not light us here; so reason's glimmering ray  Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way,  But guide us upward to a better day.  And as those nightly tapers disappear  When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere;  So pale grows reason at religion's sight;    So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.