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Heavenly Discourse is a collection of satirical essays byCharles Erskine Scott Wood, published in 1927.[1]
Wood primarily wrote poetry and serious prose.[2][3] However,Max Eastman andJohn Reed, co-editors of the radical magazineThe Masses,[a] asked him to write something humorous for their periodical. The result was a short satirical attack onWorld War I namedThe Heavenly Dialogue, published in 1914. This became the first of a series of similar dialogues.[4] Ten of these were published inThe Masses. Following passage of theEspionage Act of 1917,The Masses was suppressed by the U. S. government on the grounds that it was detrimental to the war effort. Wood continued to write more discourses.[citation needed] AfterWorld War I, Max Eastman and others urged publication of the discourses in book form.[5] In 1927, the Vanguard Press published a collection of forty-one of them under the titleHeavenly Discourse.[citation needed]
The work is primarily a dialogue betweenSatan andGod about contemporary issues. They are presented as friendly adversaries who are often in general agreement.[1] God represents Wood's own perspective.[3] A variety of other characters also join the conversation, includingangels,Jesus,Buddha, theCzar of Russia,Billy Sunday,Socrates,John Pierpont Morgan,Teddy Roosevelt,Carrie Nation,Sappho,François Rabelais,[1]Margaret Sanger,[3] andMark Twain.[6]
Politically radical, the essays ridicule war,[7]prudishness,patriotism,bigotry[3] andChristian theology.[7][8] Instead, they promotedbohemianism,free love,pacifism,socialism,[9]birth control, andwomen's rights[specify].[8] The satire of these essays mocks mainstream society and views it with skepticism.[9] Titles of some of the discourses includeIs God a Jew?,The United States Must Be Pure, andThe Stupid Cannot Enter Heaven.[citation needed] Wood wroteHeavenly Discourse from thebourgeois radicalism ofGreenwich Village of which he was a part.[8]
In one of the essays,Billy Sunday meets God, Wood pokes atbourgeois morality by imagining Billy Sunday inHeaven, surprised and disappointed to find people he condemned there. Jesus responds to his complaints, and points out that he associated with drinkers and prostitutes.[10]
Heavenly discourse is one of very few Western texts from this era to mention the angelIsrafil ofArab folklore.[11]
Although Wood wrote extensively, this was his only work to reach a wide audience.[2][3] The book had a substantial impact onRobert Paul Wolff[12] andTodd Gitlin.[9] Some American publications have called it a "classic".[5][13] Kevin Starr wrote in 2002 thatHeavenly Discourse now seems "pedestrian and heavy-handed" but affirms that it was daring in its time.[8]
Heavenly Discourse.
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