ABSTRACT
I want to consider some concepts and conceptions which have been important in mediating between the belief in God and the exercise of moral judgment. The concepts I have in mind are those of piety and impiety, the sacred and the sacrilegious, the pure and the impure. And the associated conceptions are those of obedience, right feeling and purity of heart – conceptions which belong to the God-fearing life, as our ancestors would have described it. These concepts and conceptions constitute the primary input of religion into the moral life of human beings. Moreover, they establish firm contours in the moral landscape. Without them, and without the experiences and beliefs that they designate, we are apt to err and stray like lost sheep, as the Prayer Book puts it. However, if these concepts and conceptions are ignored today, it is not only because they suggest an underpinning of religious belief but it is also for ideological reasons. This is because they present obstacles to the propagation of orthodoxies that are rooted in the academic way of life.
