Introduction or philosophical parties. “I am my own party,” Mencken wrote. The mistake is to read Mencken as anything more than an uncannily witty, gifted, and prolific author and editor who stirred up as much trouble in America’s established institutions as any American ever did. As Fred Hobson concluded after writing his own version of Mencken’s life, he “was a remarkable man who led a life that was rich, full, complex, historically significant—above all, fascinating.” The contention here is that religion was not merely a bystander in Mencken’s experience and career but a significant part of his reflection and output. Few who have studied Mencken attach much significance to his writing about faith. What needs to be seen is that his observations of and reactions to religion were as much a part of his writing as were his complaints about urban politics or the American novel. In addition to identifying an understudied part of Mencken’s life, this book may even have relevance for the vexatious nature of religion in the nation’s public life. How Mencken handled a subject that had so little appeal to him personally and produced so much mischief may be instructive both to believers and to skeptics at a time when the United States is even more prone to religion-inspired hysteria than in an earlier era when liquor, dirty novels, and contraceptives were illegal. Mencken will not put an end to the so-called culture wars. His attitude as an unbelieving minority in a majority Christian society, however, might show a way to demilitarize the combat.
9