Conversion: The Spiritual Journey of a Twentieth Century Pilgrim

by Malcolm Muggeridge

From the " What is a conversion? The question is like asking, 'What is falling in love?' There is no standard procedure, no fixed time. No Damascus Road experience has been vouchsafed me; I have just stumbled on, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, falling into the Slough of Despond, locked up in Doubting Castle, terrified at passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death; from time to time, by God's mercy, relieved of my burden of sin, but only, alas, soon to acquire it again." "From my earliest years, there was something going on inside me other than vague aspirations to make a name for myself and a stir in the something that led me to feel myself a stranger among strangers in a strange land, whose true habitat was elsewhere, another destiny whose realization would swallow up time into Eternity, transform flesh into spirit, knowledge into faith, and reveal in transcendental terms what our earthly life truly signifies." In November 1982, Malcolm Muggeridge was received into the Roman Catholic Church, an event which attracted much attention and curiosity. To Malcolm Muggeridge, it signified "a sense of homecoming, of picking up the threads of a lost life." Malcolm Muggeridge, well known around the world in the latter part of the twentieth century as a journalist, writer, and media figure, is still remembered as a vociferous unbeliever for a great part of his career. But always he had had an awareness that another dimension existed, that there was a destiny beyond the devices and desires of the ego, and that earthly life could not be the end. This book, first published in 1988 and the last of his writing to be published in his lifetime, is a personal statement of the history and development of his religious beliefs. An important section relates to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, latterly beatified, and with expectations to becoming a Saint. Her influence was perhaps the most powerful force leading this deeply thinking man to God and to the Roman Catholic Church. He describes also the effect upon him of meetings with Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a man whom he considers to be one of the greatest prophets of our time, with a profound spiritual message for our turbulent world. This moving testimony is not about the mechanics of becoming a Roman Catholic. Rather, it is about a series of happenings, occasions of enlightenment, that led one spiritually troubled man to find God. It is a statement of belief which will fascinate all who are interested in the workings of the human mind, and will inspire all who seek the Truth.

Genres: Christianity, Biography, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Memoir, Christian, Religion

156 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 1988

About the author

Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy. In the aftermath of the war, as a hugely influential London journalist, he converted to Christianity and helped bring Mother Teresa to popular attention in the West. He was also a critic of the sexual revolution and of drug use.

Reviews

[Linda Mock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muggeridge was, to my mind, quintessentially British. In other words, he was kind of an odd duck. So, it was unsurprising that this autobiography of his spiritual journey, would be unusual. He writes in the third person with quick interjections of first person comments almost confidentially directed at the reader.
If someone were looking for a comprehensive autobiography, I wouldn't recommend this book. It is quite short and filled with quotes by others. And yet, there is an intimate clarity that one usually finds with poetry, I think. I enjoyed it very much.

[Stanley Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book from Muggeridge. I have read one book, several articles and essays from Muggeridge, this is the second book and I found it extremely informative at times. Muggeridge covers his religious life from youth through his joining the Catholic Church in 1982. I highlighted numerous passages along with notes scattered throughout. Highly recommended...SLT

[Evan Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointing.

I heard about Muggeridge from my good friend Rimas about ten years ago, but finally got around to him now. I have to say, I found some of his arguments haven't aged well. And this book probably doesn't give the fairest representation of them because it's quite short and sporadic since he wrote it near the end of his life.

There were times where it seemed like he was more into being conservative than Christian. For example, lots of scorn for the Soviet system and none for the Nazis. I mean maybe he felt like it was too obvious, but I thought the omission was glaring. I'm also not anti Christendom, but I think he way over does it. In my humble opinion, Christendom caused just as many problems as it solved. It's just a system. Every system will have its flaws. And while I'm no revolutionary, I think he borders on holding onto something just because it's been there rather than because it's good.

There were also a couple of anti-body comments that I thought were problematic theologically.

Overall, he's a very interesting person whose life spans the twentieth century. But he had some serious problems in his life that he didn't resolve for a long time. I mean he just goes off and leaves his family on his jobs multiple times and once almost killed himself after drinking too much on one of those jobs. At least he's honest that he's no saint, but how long it took him to finally give himself over to God was sort of frustrating to read.

Apparently, he gets compared to Chesterton. Well, that just didn't pan out for me. It's probably unfair to try to live up to Chesterton.

[Dominik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alas, for a book that (at least according to the title) purports to be about conversion, this book sadly is much more an autobiography than a spiritual journey. Though, as an autobiography, it is unsteady, a bit over-salted with quotes from others, and oddly written in the third person, varying temporally by the author's stage of life; e.g. "The Student," "The Journalist". Given the author's status, for most of his life, as a "vociferous unbeliever" (as per the back cover) I expected more analysis, more understanding, more journey here.

Disappointing, and feels a bit dated at points -- some references sail well over my Millennial head unless I look them up.

That said, the chapters on his time in pre-WW2 USSR and Ukraine are fascinating, given that his -- at-the-time -- contrarian opinion now is the dominant opinion and the "Liberals" he derides as blindly infatuated with Stalin are now seen as just that.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, and well written. He gives a fairly high level flyover of his 80+ year life and you can tell he has seen many major events and major ideas come and go. He's very poetic and philosophical about how he describes the events in his life and his eventual growing towards God. I'm not very familiar with Muggeridge in general, but plan to read some more of his writing to get a feel for the man.

[Jason Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some spots related to specifics in the USSR that were tough to get through, but when Mr. Muggeridge returned to the meat of his conversion story, I was all-in. Many good quotes and little nuggets to extract.

[Andrew Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough to read due to the writing style, but very thought-provoking and perceptive in many places. It’s a whirlwind tour through his spiritual journey.

[Berenice Hosking · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Martin Moleski · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd autobiography--written mostly in the third person. I suppose that is OK, because Muggeridge was an odd man.

I read Something Beautiful for God and wanted to find out how Muggeridge solved the problems he posed in that book when he converted to Catholicism later in life.

"The Church, after all, is an institution with a history; a past and a future. It went on crusades, it set up an inquisition, it installed scandalous popes and countenanced monstrous iniquities. Institutionally speaking, these are perfectly comprehensible, and even, in earthly terms, excusable. In the mouthpiece of God on earth, belonging, not just to history, but to everlasting truth, they are not to be defended. At least, not by me."

"Today, there is the additional circumstance that the Church, for inscrutable reasons of its own, has decided to have a reformation just when the previous one--Luther's--is finally running into the sand. I make no judgment about something which, as a non-member, is no concern of mine; but if I were a member, then I should be forced to say that, in my opinion, if men were to be stationed at the doors of churches with whips to drive worshipers away, or inside the religious orders specifically to discourage vocations, or among the clergy to spread alarm and despondency, they could not hope to be as effective in achieving these ends as are trends and policies seemingly now dominant within the Church. Feeling so, it would be preposterous to seek admission, more particularly as, if the ecumenical course is fully run, luminaries of the Church to which I nominally belong, like the former Bishop of Woolwich, for whom--putting it mildly--I have little regard, will in due course take their place in the Roman Catholic hierarchy among the heirs of St. Peter."

He didn't really solve any of these problems. He seems to have decided to take what is good in Catholicism, especially the sacrament of Communion, and leave his complaints aside.

I find this prayer from the Foreword very moving and apt:

God, humble my pride,
extinguish the last stirrings of my ego,
obliterate whatever remains of worldly ambition and carnality,
and in these last days of my mortal existence,
help me to serve only Thy purposes,
to speak and to write only Thy words,
to think only Thy thoughts,
to have no other prayer than "Thy will be done."