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Essays of a Catholic
Belloc turns his powerful mind, erudition, robust common sense and supreme confidence in the Catholic Faith to a host of topics, including The New Paganism, Legend, Usury, The Schools, The Two Cultures of the West, The Catholic Church and The Modern State, etc. Belloc predicted--and explains--the chaos we now witness. This brilliant work is a tonic sorely needed by Catholics today!
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First published October 3, 1923
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About the author
Hilaire Belloc
727 books402 followersPeople considered Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc, French-born British writer, as a master of light English prose and also knew widely his droll verse, especially
The Bad Child's Book of Beasts
in 1896.
Sharp wit of Hilaire Belloc, an historian, poet, and orator, extended across literary output and strong political and religious convictions. Oxford educated this distinguished debater and scholar. Throughout his career, he prolifically across a range of genres and produced histories, essays, travelogues, poetry, and satirical works.
Cautionary Tales for Children collects best humorous yet dark morals, and historical works of Hilaire Belloc often reflected his staunch Catholicism and critique of Protestant interpretations. He led advocates of an economic theory that promotes and championed distribution of small-scale property ownership as a middle ground between capitalism and socialism alongside Gilbert Keith Chesterton, his close friend.
In politics, Hilaire Belloc served as a member of Parliament for the Liberal party, but the establishment disillusioned him. His polemical style and strong opinions made a controversial figure, who particularly viewed modernism, secularism, and financial capitalism as threats to traditional Christian society in his critiques.
Influence and vast literary legacy of Hilaire Belloc extends into historical circles. Erudition, humor, and a forceful rhetorical style characterized intellectual vigor and unique perspective, which people continue to study and to appreciate, on history, society, and human nature.
Sharp wit of Hilaire Belloc, an historian, poet, and orator, extended across literary output and strong political and religious convictions. Oxford educated this distinguished debater and scholar. Throughout his career, he prolifically across a range of genres and produced histories, essays, travelogues, poetry, and satirical works.
Cautionary Tales for Children collects best humorous yet dark morals, and historical works of Hilaire Belloc often reflected his staunch Catholicism and critique of Protestant interpretations. He led advocates of an economic theory that promotes and championed distribution of small-scale property ownership as a middle ground between capitalism and socialism alongside Gilbert Keith Chesterton, his close friend.
In politics, Hilaire Belloc served as a member of Parliament for the Liberal party, but the establishment disillusioned him. His polemical style and strong opinions made a controversial figure, who particularly viewed modernism, secularism, and financial capitalism as threats to traditional Christian society in his critiques.
Influence and vast literary legacy of Hilaire Belloc extends into historical circles. Erudition, humor, and a forceful rhetorical style characterized intellectual vigor and unique perspective, which people continue to study and to appreciate, on history, society, and human nature.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 9, 2018
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) was the son of a French lawyer and an English suffragette. The family moved to England after the father's death in 1872. Hilaire became a great scholar and writer of books, poems, and essays. This volume of essays was compiled by Belloc and focuses on cultural and historical issues from his own perspective, often contrasting a Catholic position with contemporary thoughts and attitudes.
In many of the essays, he contrasts the Catholic and the Protestant cultures in Europe, especially in England. Education is a big concern, since the government funded and mandated primary schools also follow the government approved version of history that casts Catholics in a bad light and can (perhaps unintentionally) undermine their faith. Belloc notes that parents are the primary educators of their children and parents' rights should be primary. He also discusses the slim possibility of England as a whole converting back to Catholicism. He even recommends a return to Latin as an international language, especially in light of the complete failure of Esperanto, "which is about as much like a human language as a jigsaw puzzle is like a human face." [p. 238] The contrasts are interesting but feel a little dated.
He also provides a fascinating look at economic and scientific issues from a Catholic perspective. He disparages usury and shows an interesting, morally acceptable way for investors to make money. He demonstrates the pitfalls of capitalism and the complete unacceptability of socialism. His essay "Science as the Enemy of Truth" presents a brilliant condemnation of the "Modern Scientific Spirit" which he dissects in minute detail. The breadth of issues he deals with is impressive.
The joy of the book is in Belloc's precision of argument. He knows how to say exactly what he means and to assess the relative value of arguments based in reason, speculation, and emotion. He is decisive without being condescending or insulting. He has both clarity and charity, a hard mixture to achieve. Some of his issues are less relevant today, but his intelligence and his attitude are an excellent example in our age of television- and Twitter-sized arguments.
Recommended.
In many of the essays, he contrasts the Catholic and the Protestant cultures in Europe, especially in England. Education is a big concern, since the government funded and mandated primary schools also follow the government approved version of history that casts Catholics in a bad light and can (perhaps unintentionally) undermine their faith. Belloc notes that parents are the primary educators of their children and parents' rights should be primary. He also discusses the slim possibility of England as a whole converting back to Catholicism. He even recommends a return to Latin as an international language, especially in light of the complete failure of Esperanto, "which is about as much like a human language as a jigsaw puzzle is like a human face." [p. 238] The contrasts are interesting but feel a little dated.
He also provides a fascinating look at economic and scientific issues from a Catholic perspective. He disparages usury and shows an interesting, morally acceptable way for investors to make money. He demonstrates the pitfalls of capitalism and the complete unacceptability of socialism. His essay "Science as the Enemy of Truth" presents a brilliant condemnation of the "Modern Scientific Spirit" which he dissects in minute detail. The breadth of issues he deals with is impressive.
The joy of the book is in Belloc's precision of argument. He knows how to say exactly what he means and to assess the relative value of arguments based in reason, speculation, and emotion. He is decisive without being condescending or insulting. He has both clarity and charity, a hard mixture to achieve. Some of his issues are less relevant today, but his intelligence and his attitude are an excellent example in our age of television- and Twitter-sized arguments.
Recommended.
July 11, 2014
One of Belloc's finest and most important books where he turns his profound mind to the subjects that matter most to him.
I have an long review of this book with extensive quotes here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2013/...
Here I will just say that Belloc proves he was a prophet ... Poignant and powerful.
I have an long review of this book with extensive quotes here: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/2013/...
Here I will just say that Belloc proves he was a prophet ... Poignant and powerful.
July 6, 2022
Chapter 10 “Science as the Enemy of Truth”
Belloc explains the misuse of language as it relates to Science, modern scientific writing, and terms such as “Natural Selection.” “Substituting numerical synthesis for integration is the original sin.” Assuming universal knowledge is the “second worst error.” Belloc follows with a dozen explanations to show how “Modern Scientific Spirit has lost logic . . . and produced in its votaries an open negation of reason.”
Belloc explains the misuse of language as it relates to Science, modern scientific writing, and terms such as “Natural Selection.” “Substituting numerical synthesis for integration is the original sin.” Assuming universal knowledge is the “second worst error.” Belloc follows with a dozen explanations to show how “Modern Scientific Spirit has lost logic . . . and produced in its votaries an open negation of reason.”
November 4, 2021
It's refreshing to read arguments that make bold and broad claims, that paint a full picture. Belloc makes the distinctions he needs to, but avoids the error of allowing complexity around the edges spoil an otherwise compelling argument.
The subject matter and quality of the essays vary, and Belloc is at his best when discussing social patterns and history. One sad note: Belloc writes from a position when the Church was internally strong. It's frustrating to read some of his reflections on the Catholic Church which assume a lack of significant heresy or relativism.
The subject matter and quality of the essays vary, and Belloc is at his best when discussing social patterns and history. One sad note: Belloc writes from a position when the Church was internally strong. It's frustrating to read some of his reflections on the Catholic Church which assume a lack of significant heresy or relativism.
December 26, 2024
In many ways it is refreshing to read the militancy of Belloc in these essays. He lived in an England that had for four centuries been given over to the lies if told itself about religion, government, and the rest of the world. Belloc's remedies are radical but grounded in deeper realities than his contemporaries (and quite definitely, the English of today) are willing to grapple with.
"For a Christian man or society is one that has some part of Catholicism left in him. But when every shred of Catholicism is lost we call that state of things 'Unchristian.'" (p. 3)
"The battle for right doctrine in theology is always also a battle for the preservation of definite social things (institutions, habits) following from right doctrine..." (p. 9)
"[F]or as there is nothing more irritating than pride, so there is nothing more satisfactory than the humbling thereof..." (p. 95)
(when dealing with poor history) "Many men write these things down from a sort of mental inertia because it is easier to keep in a rut, many more because falsehood is in their traditions and tehy would feel shocked at the appearance of the truth." (p. 103)
"A vast economic revolution such as that which despoiled religion throughout the Protestant culture, and especially in England, for the benefit of individual princes, nobles, squires, merchants and adventurers, and was continued by the savage dispossession of Catholic laymen and the transference of their wealth to their enemies, is the dominating fact of the Reformation." (p. 103)
"To talk of action done without its leave under Charles I as 'unconstitutional'; to call this body under Burghley, summoned by an all-powerful executive and often individually chosen by the Crown 'the nation'; to call its pronouncements 'the opinion of the country' — all that stuff is grossly unhistorical. It is reading the present, or rather the nineteenth century, into the sixteenth century and the seventeenth century." (p. 106)
"The generation which no longer listened to the story of the miraculous bird at whose singing one hundred years passed like one hour, came to deny immortality and eternal beatitude. That is what happens when men are starved of Legend. Therefore, we should all pray that Legend may return." (p. 118)
"When a Legend becomes a Myth, that is, when what is undoubtedly not historically true is affirmed to be historical truth and used as such in policy and practice, then you have something evil. But you have a much more poisonous evil when the mind has come to despise instinctively almost any story that is beautifully and spiritually true and illuminating, merely because it may not be historical." (p. 119)
"In other words, the Modern Scientific Spirit is always looking for, and finding, facts in order to misuse them." (p. 148)
"For instance, rapid transport has brought about something like a permanent massacre." (p. 173)
"[T]he decay of English, its rapid vulgarization and weakening, are due to its sprawling undisciplined over such incongruous lands." (p. 196)
"[B]ut the man who knew so little of the formation of Europe as not to know that there had been a Council held at Trent certianly could not understand from what roots the present international complications spring." (p. 215)
"[A] Catholic supporting Communism is committing a mortal sin." (p. 224)
"Just as Industrial Capitalism came out of the Protestant ethic, so the remedy for it must come out of the Catholic ethic. In other words, we must make the world Catholic before we can correct it from teh evils into which the denial of Catholicism has thrown it." (p. 225)
"Even in these our earthly miseries we always hear the distant something of an eternal music, and smell a native air." (p. 234)
"All social life is primarily conditioned by the mode of thought under which a society lives; its morals, its intellectual habits, its strong traditions of behavior, all these proceed from the religious doctrines under which it has been formed." (p. 240)
"For a Christian man or society is one that has some part of Catholicism left in him. But when every shred of Catholicism is lost we call that state of things 'Unchristian.'" (p. 3)
"The battle for right doctrine in theology is always also a battle for the preservation of definite social things (institutions, habits) following from right doctrine..." (p. 9)
"[F]or as there is nothing more irritating than pride, so there is nothing more satisfactory than the humbling thereof..." (p. 95)
(when dealing with poor history) "Many men write these things down from a sort of mental inertia because it is easier to keep in a rut, many more because falsehood is in their traditions and tehy would feel shocked at the appearance of the truth." (p. 103)
"A vast economic revolution such as that which despoiled religion throughout the Protestant culture, and especially in England, for the benefit of individual princes, nobles, squires, merchants and adventurers, and was continued by the savage dispossession of Catholic laymen and the transference of their wealth to their enemies, is the dominating fact of the Reformation." (p. 103)
"To talk of action done without its leave under Charles I as 'unconstitutional'; to call this body under Burghley, summoned by an all-powerful executive and often individually chosen by the Crown 'the nation'; to call its pronouncements 'the opinion of the country' — all that stuff is grossly unhistorical. It is reading the present, or rather the nineteenth century, into the sixteenth century and the seventeenth century." (p. 106)
"The generation which no longer listened to the story of the miraculous bird at whose singing one hundred years passed like one hour, came to deny immortality and eternal beatitude. That is what happens when men are starved of Legend. Therefore, we should all pray that Legend may return." (p. 118)
"When a Legend becomes a Myth, that is, when what is undoubtedly not historically true is affirmed to be historical truth and used as such in policy and practice, then you have something evil. But you have a much more poisonous evil when the mind has come to despise instinctively almost any story that is beautifully and spiritually true and illuminating, merely because it may not be historical." (p. 119)
"In other words, the Modern Scientific Spirit is always looking for, and finding, facts in order to misuse them." (p. 148)
"For instance, rapid transport has brought about something like a permanent massacre." (p. 173)
"[T]he decay of English, its rapid vulgarization and weakening, are due to its sprawling undisciplined over such incongruous lands." (p. 196)
"[B]ut the man who knew so little of the formation of Europe as not to know that there had been a Council held at Trent certianly could not understand from what roots the present international complications spring." (p. 215)
"[A] Catholic supporting Communism is committing a mortal sin." (p. 224)
"Just as Industrial Capitalism came out of the Protestant ethic, so the remedy for it must come out of the Catholic ethic. In other words, we must make the world Catholic before we can correct it from teh evils into which the denial of Catholicism has thrown it." (p. 225)
"Even in these our earthly miseries we always hear the distant something of an eternal music, and smell a native air." (p. 234)
"All social life is primarily conditioned by the mode of thought under which a society lives; its morals, its intellectual habits, its strong traditions of behavior, all these proceed from the religious doctrines under which it has been formed." (p. 240)
January 10, 2021
Although Belloc is occasionally too pugilistic in spirit for my tastes, he excels when he takes the "big picture" view, expounds upon first principles, and demolishes what he would call "cant". I especially enjoyed his treatment of economic matters and pointing out the overreaching of "experts" into areas where they are rank amateurs, such as philosophy and history.
Want to read
November 16, 2009Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 12, as one of Ten Books by Hilaire Belloc Well Worth Reading (actual title given in book: "Selected Essays of Hilaire Belloc").
March 30, 2016
As you would expect this collection is a bit of a mix, however there are some good essays in here for example: new paganism, can usury, on legend, and the schools.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews