Zia Durrani: Ethics as a Religion

The book Zia Durrani will be reviewing, “picked out of several piles put in front of us,” she tells us, “because I was intrigued by the title, Ethics as a Religion. As I read the book it answered many questions I have had for a while, and couldn’t find the words to formulate an answer: What do I believe in? Is Ethics enough?” Ethics as a Religion, by David Saville Muzzey, traces the history and heritage of the Ethical Culture Society, and emphasizes important elements of the Ethical fellowship. And it comes to the conclusion that Ethics is a religion for adults. Dr. Muzzey accepts that there are several widely recognized religions in which the ethical factor is prominent. His quest in this book is to find “faith in the reasonableness, the timeliness, the adequacy, and the eventual triumph of the Religion of Ethics.” Since we consider the Ethical Culture movement to be a religion, it is incumbent upon us to explain the principles on which this claim rests. This is the main thrust of the argument in the book. ECS Board Member Zia Durrani was born and raised in Kashmir, India, where she lived until 1963. Educated in India and England, she was a teacher of English in a women’s college in Srinagar, her home town, until she married and left Kashmir to live briefly in Madras, and then moved to London. Zia came to the US in 1976, and lived in various places before coming to South Orange.