The Belief of Catholics

Book excerpt: "And people go round saying, 'At least Catholics know what they believe, '" sarcastically remarks Charles Ryder of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. With The Belief of Catholics, Ronald Knox offers a stirring credo which puts the sarcasm of his friend and biographer Waugh's protagonist in its proper place. Building up the vast, intricate structure of Catholic doctrine from its foundation to its summit, Knox begins with a scrutiny of modernity's ill-founded aversion to religion and then proceeds, in measured, memorable style, to address those "essential and unavoidable" questions to which religion must provide the answers. Does God exist? Does he reveal himself to humanity? Is a loving relationship between God and human beings a myth or a reality? Is the Catholic Church what it claims to be: the means and end of salvation as promised by Jesus Christ? Celebrated since its first appearance in 1927 as a classic in Catholic apologetics, The Belief of Catholics offers a clear, stimulating, and persuasive presentation of orthodoxy. As a challenge to skeptics and a restorative for believers, Knox's work is the genuine article: the expression of the faith, freely received as it was freely given, ringing with the courage of one man's unflagging conviction.