Essays of a Catholic

Book excerpt: AN EYE-OPENING BOOK FROM A BRILLIANT, BELOVED CATHOLIC WRITER! Essays of a Catholic is a book as provocative now as it was when it first appeared in 1931. Hilaire Belloc’s observations about our civilization’s demise are all the more urgent today, because they are proving to be prophetic. We are troubled witnesses to many of the evils he predicted as we watch the working out of the destructive trends and forces that he warned would lead to disaster. What key insight led to Belloc’s keen discernment of the times? He recognized that the Catholic Church has inspired and formed our great Western civilization. As the influence of that mighty institution wanes, then—as society slowly abandons what it has learned from her—the night¬ descends on our way of life as we have known it. In its stead emerges a new paganism, and with it, a new barbarism. In these essays, Belloc sharpens our awareness of the calamitous effects of this waning influence of the Catholic Church in society. There is hope for the future of our civilization—but only if we as a people embrace once more the liberating truth of the Catholic faith. The great Hilaire Belloc was one of the foremost Catholic historians of the past two centuries. His astute analysis of our cultural and social ills culminates in an urgent prophetic call for Western civilization to return to its Catholic roots.