Publisher's Synopsis
The Prologue presents three aspects of Shaw's personality as they are revealed in John Bull's Other Island: the self-aggrandizing politician (Broadbent), the ironist-satirist (Larry Doyle), and the religious seeker (Peter Keegan). It is the "Keegan-Shaw" that is the principal subject of the book.
Part I reviews the birth and development of the Life Force idea as an alternative to "valueless agnosticism" in Shaw's struggle against cynicism, the conventional response to World War I. Shaw's unpublished lecture notes of 1906 on Darwin and Darwinism are related to his Methuselah Preface of 1921. Part II explicates the "life force" concept of evolution by comparing it with that of Neo-Darwinians (Julian Huxley), and that of the scientific theologian, Teilhard de Chardin. For Shaw "the central challenge to Darwinism is not so much how evolution happens, as why it happens" - a challenge confronted today by an increasing number of both scientists and theologians. Part III explains Shaw's difficulty in reconciling the "life force" idea with the reality of the modern world, especially with political irresponsibility and ineptitude. A brief "Envoy" evaluates the significance of the "life force" for our times and for the future. The "life force" was the central article of faith for Shaw the salvationist prophet-albeit a prophet armed with wit, a "laughing prophet."
