FeedSurvivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church
July 5, 2012 in Old Church Tags: Arrivals, Catholic, Church, Enemies, Survivals
Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church
A strange title veils what is probably Hilaire Belloc’s most important book. For here this great Catholic historian analyzes for us-in sort of a culminating statement-what is the position of the Catholic Church in the world today, particularly as seen vis-a-vis her enemies. It is the Church’s enemies, he maintains, and the nature of their attacks upon her, that reveal what exactly is her place and influence upon the world at any given point of history-and what are her opportunities for success. The enemies of the Church, he says, always consist of three sorts: The Survivals, or those enemies whose major attacks are on the wane, though still surviving; the Main Opposition, whose attacks are presently at their peak; and the New Arrivals, or those enemies of the Church that are just coming into the battle, whose attacks against the Church are just beginning or are only in the bud. First published in 1929, Survivals and New Arrivals names The Modern Mind as one of the three main opponents of the Catholic Faith, which it obviously still is today. His analysis of The Modern Mind is nothing short of brilliant, and in places would be even hilarious if it were not so terribly and tragically true. For the Modern Mind, he says, is like a blob of mud. You cannot penetrate it, filled as it is with all sorts of preconceived, undigested and unanalyzed notions it has accepted on faith from its two great sources of information: compulsory education and the popular press. The truths of the Catholic Faith cannot penetrate this sort of mind. (Belloc’s comments about modern compulsory education are positively classic and more than worth reading the entire book.) The overriding value of Survivals and New Arrivals, that which puts it in a class by itself among all Belloc’s writings, is his description of The Modern Mind in union with his analysis of the New Paganism, and what opportunities the present situation poses for the Catholic Fait
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July 5th, 2012 at 2:35 am
Could have been written yesterday,
Belloc describes and evaluates philosophies/movements/moods antagonistic to the Church. He divides them into three types–
“Survivals” are either discredited, like fundamentalism, or ever present but currently (1929) in disrepute, like materialism.
“Main Opposition” are the strongest of the hour–for Belloc nationalism, anti-clericalism, and most significantly, the “modern mind”, a vague, passive resistance to faith and dogma built on ill-conceived, ill-considered ideas about the infallibility of science, the inevitability of progress, and the primacy of man. Of immense interest is Belloc’s critique of compulsory state sponsored education–a fairly new thing in Britain at the time. He sees quite clearly that such an assembly line process leads to the weakening of parental authority, a deadening of intellectual acuity, and the development of a world view that prioritizes certain types of knowledge above a clear, rational sense of morality. All these effects, as Belloc prophetically observes, lead to social decay.
“New Arrivals” are developing enemies. With remarkable foresight, Belloc zeroes in on what he calls “Neo-Paganism”, which is an attitude of despair, a flat rejection of absolute truth in faith and morals. Belloc accurately predicts the growth of this attitude in the West and the terrible damage it will unleash on our society and culture.
Belloc is enlightening as usual. He not only explains the nature of these movements, but sketches their historical roots, so that we get some sense of how these things developed, and why. It is easy to see that many of these oppostions exist today, although in somewhat different forms, described in different terms, and somehow jumbled up together in a vague secular attitude. The clear and thorough examination in this book helps us make sense of this jumble, and perhaps to formulate a response.
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|July 5th, 2012 at 3:14 am
Prophetic Belloc,
This beautifully written masterpiece stands as a sequel, more or less, to Belloc’s masterful “Great Heresies”. Here, Belloc describes the old and new enemies of the Catholic Church. As Mr. Schorr of Geneva observed, much of the corpus of this work seems very contemporary. Sadly, what may not be contemporary is the solution proposed by the great Catholic historian and social thinker.
Belloc wrote at a time when the Church and the Faith, though as always persecuted, were at least united. Were Belloc around now to comment on the post-Vatican II state of the Church, he would probably be more emphatic in his prescription for necessary Catholic action.
And yet, the truth Belloc states herein is eternal. Witness the following:
“Either we shall see the gradual permeation of mankind by the only body of truth to which the mind leaps in unison, rendering all as secure as it can be among a fallen race; or our civilization will sink to be a completely alien body, knowing even less of the Faith than do the distraught town millions of today.”
As previously mentioned, the same truth obtains even today. The question is yet to be answered. And in the answer resides the fate of the human race.
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