Inhaltsangabe
It is the common method, as the author of this book points out, of Catholic apologists to begin by establishing the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ, then that of the Church, and finally, as a necessary consequence, the truth of the doctrine she proposes to our belief-a method which has been in the past (as no doubt it will also be in the future) of incalculable service towards the conversion of souls. But, in modern days, minds are beginning to scrutinize phenomena from a new angle, and it is largely to men who have had the wide and active experiences of my friend, Father Vassall-Phillips, that the existence of this other angle becomes apparent. It is the mission preacher, and the instructor of proselytes, who learns how souls as a matter of fact do face questions. of religion, whereas the student and the professional theologian tend rather to form opinions as to how inquirers ought to do so. For, as Cardinal Manning pointed out long ago, not only is there amongst us in the present day a great deal of that overt Rationalism which formally challenges the first principles of faith, but, what is even more subtle and dangerous (since it is largely concealed even from those affected by it), there is also a widespread spirit of incipient Rationalism which, while not explicitly denying these first principles, is yet sufficiently doubtful about them to distrust all conclusions based upon their foundations. Accordingly, it would seem as if another method than that of deductive argument must be used towards those whose methods of thought are neither profound nor exact. Once men established the principle first, and examined later its manifestations; now it is the phenomena first and the cause second. Men must have facts first and explanations afterwards. In history, in science, in almost every branch of knowledge, men are once more acting along the lines which are, after all, those sanctioned by our Blessed Lord Himself in the words, "By their fruits you shall know them." Now, in many ways the old method was apt to be unconvincing, owing to the fact that those who most confidently appeal to Reason are usually the very persons most controlled by Imagination. If they cannot "see," as they would say, the situation as a whole, they are apt to distrust the entire line of irrefutable argument by which its soundness is established, even though they cannot lay their finger upon any faulty link. Even after, step by step, the process of life had been traced-after, for example, the Catechism had been shown to be nothing more than the inevitable expansion of the Apostolic creed-yet an uneasy sense remained in the mind of the inquirer that he had in some way been tricked; he was still faced, In spite of the intellectual justification, by the imaginative difficulty of the marked dissimilarity between the exuberance of the one and the stern nakedness of the other. At some point, he was apt to tell himself, the transforming poison must have been introduced whereby deformity took the place of legitimate growth. It is this mentality which is most characteristic of our own age. Certainly it has its advantages in widening general views of life-men act as entire human beings rather than as "thinking machines" - yet the very gain In wideness means, nearly always, a loss in depth. It is perfectly reasonable, therefore, to do what is possible in meeting the inquirer on the ground which he is timid of leaving, and to begin at once by acknowledging cordially that the Catholicism of to-day appears to be a very different thing from the religious atmosphere of the Acts of the Apostles. Then, having done this, the argument begins in a new aspect.
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