Ronald Knox and Catholicism

Ronald Knox was a preacher, poet, and essayist who wrote during the first half of the 2oth century. He converted from the Anglican faith and went on to become a Monsignor. I know this from the introduction I read to a book passed on to me the other day, The Quotable Knox, a compendium of quotes and writings by him. I flipped through it yesterday to pass time during hours of proctoring final exams. Here are some quotes that I liked:

On Christianity

"It began as a religion of slaves; it has destroyed slavery. It was thrown to the lions in the amphitheatre; it has abolished the amphitheatre. Absolute monarchy, like a flustered giant, laboured to crush it only till yesterday; it has outlived absolute monarchy...Its vitality is inexhaustible...the world has not felt the full strength of it as yet...it still conquers men's hearts; you have only mistaken the morning mists for the chill of the sunset. Look about you; it is dawn."

On Catholicism

"The Catholic Church is only just beginning. The movements of history that pass and repass, chequering her sunshine with shadow, they are only the clouds of early morning for all we know...we have passed through darker hours than this...if the hatred or the contempt of men could kill the Catholic faith, it would have been dead long ago."

Knox died in 1957, but had he lived longer he might have added to the first quote that the atheists and savages (the Nazis and the Communists) tried to put it in death camps and abolish it from the earth all together, but countless martyrs, an Albanian nun, and a Polish priest said yes to God and broke the backs of the atheists and the savages.

(Also, did you all know that before Christianity there were NO such things as hospitals or orphanages? Let alone universities, the scientific method, the notion of natural rights, but that is another post...)

Be not afraid.