spiritual lives of 20th c writers

Literary Converts tells the stories of prominent British intellectuals' conversions to, in the main, Roman Catholicism from the Anglican church or from an atheist/agnostic standpoint. The ranks of the converts included famous novelists such as Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy Sayers, Muriel Spark and Graham Greene, historians such as Christopher Dawson, theologians such as Ronald Knox, philosophers such as F.C. Copleston and Cyril Joad, author/journalist/editor Hugh Ross Williamson, poets such as Siegfried Sassoon, Edith Sitwell, Roy Campbell and David Jones and of course G.K. Chesterton - poet, novelist, biographer, historian, critic and journalist, E.F. Schumaker, one of the stalwarts of the ecological movement, author, journalist and radio/TV host Malcolm Muggeridge and actor Alec Guinness.

There were a few prominent intellectuals who did not quite go all the way, most notably T.S. Eliot who converted to the Anglican Church, and C.S. Lewis who opted to remain in the Anglican Church. In both cases there was no intellectual impediment to "Poping". Their decisions were mostly a matter of allegiance to the history and culture of their adopted and native country.

One other noteworthy conversion, due more to the incongruity of his situation more than due to his lasting fame was that of Douglas Hyde, Communist news editor of the Daily Worker by day, and working his way towards the Catholic Church in the evenings, reading works by Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc and Ronald Knox, and eventually becoming a staff writer for the Catholic Herald in 1952. Ultimately, he did backslide due to what felt was a failure on the part of the Church to deliver on the promises of reform following Vatican II. He was attracted to liberation theology and opposed the efforts by John Paul II to rein in the movement in Latin America.

So what were the reasons why so many British intellectuals converted to Roman Catholicism during the course of the 20th century? For many of the literary converts one of the primary influences turns out to be literary, specifically the writings of cradle Catholic Hilaire Belloc and the other half of what George Bernard Shaw sarcastically called "Chrsterbelloc", namely G.K. Chesteron. Many of the subjects referred to Chesterton's "Orthodoxy", "The Everlasting Man" and the poem "The Ballad of the White Horse" which some considered to be in a class with Eliot's "The Waste Land".

Some were influenced by the social teaching of the Catholic Church, particularly Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum. Many were influenced by Belloc and Chesterton's articulation of an alternative to capitalism and communism in the form of an economic theory called Distributism.

Some converts were attracted to the universality of the Catholic Church, having come to the conclusion that the Anglican Church could never be more than a half-way house to salvation, as its boundaries would always be dictated by its national origins and thus could never unite any nations that were neither English speaking nor part of the British Empire. In fact, many of the converts were attracted by the Latin liturgy in that it represented a universal language of Christendom. Any Catholic could attend Mass in any Catholic Church in the world and be at home with the liturgy. Following the reforms of Vatican II, the discarding of Latin in favor of the vernacular sparked a common and often bitter criticism.

Some converts could be simply described as men and women who had a "hole in their soul" and were seeking peace and community that was not satisfied by their inherited religion, their education, or the modernism that was pervasive in the English culture following World War I.

It was somewhat ironic, given English history, that many of the converts went for instruction and were received into the Catholic Church by Jesuits who staffed a church in London known as Farm Street. Among the more notable priests who brought distinguished authors into the fold, was Fr. Martin D'Arcy an outstanding scholar in the philosophy of history.

I was so impressed with the stories related by Pearce that I have decided to follow up this book with D'Arcy's "The Meaning and Matter of History - A Christian View, Belloc's "The Servile Sate". Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" and Colpleston's "Aquinas".

There is not likely to be a large audience for a work like Literary Converts, given the spirit of our age, but I recommend it without reservation in the hope that it will give a fresh perspective to readers who might remember what we have lost and inspiration to readers who like the subjects of this work are seeking to fill the hole in their souls. ( )

The 20th century has been marked both by belief and unbelief. While attendance at church has declined dramatically, the lives of many leaders have been influenced and inspired by Christianity. Joseph Pearce explores the world of some writers in the English language who have believed. Most of those included converted to Roman Catholicism and some to Anglicanism.

Subtitulado como "La Inspiración espiritual de una época de incredulidad". Pearce recoge en él, la vida de unos hombres, todos ellos escritores, todos ellos pensadores, todos ellos residieron en Inglaterra...Todos ellos después de distintas visicitudes, después de haber intentado encontrar la verdad en la más variadas opciones que tanto ayer, como hoy, ofrece la vida: ateismo, agnosticismo, la ciencia, anglocatolicismo, protestantismo, sexo, alcohol, etc, etc, etc...Todos ellos, repito, "se rinidieron" a la Iglesia Católica, y se hicieron "papistas" (Lewis se convirtió al Anglicanismo), con lo que eso significaba y significa en Inglaterra. Y vaya que si vendieron cara su derrota. No eran pusilánimes, sino grandes pensadores, líderes de su tiempo: catedráticos de la universidad, poetas, literatos, periodistas, polemistas...La mayoría empezaron como "enemigos" de la Iglesia Católica, bastantes de ellos, fueron conociéndola, precisamente para mejor combatirla, y se encontraron atrapados por Ella, en unos tiempos en los que tan solo la Iglesia se mantenía "a flote en medio de una gran tempestad". Joseph Perce, mediante citas de estos autores: Chesterton, JRR Tolkien, Lewis, Benson, Baring, Belloc, Edith Sitwell, etc.; va componiendo el mosaico de su vida. Mosaico muy diferente en cada caso, pero que termina el la paz de una muerte en el hogar, que termina en Roma.. ( )

Not only was this interesting to read about these authors conversions, but it gave me a deeper understanding of the meaning behind their work, how it was influenced by their experiences and their faith, and where they were coming from. Very well done... ( )