Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church

Rating:
Summary: Could have been written yesterday
Review: Belloc describes and evaluates philosophies/movements/moods antagonistic to the Church. He divides them into three types--

"Survivals" are either discredited, like fundamentalism, or ever present but currently (1929) in disrepute, like materialism.

"Main Opposition" are the strongest of the hour--for Belloc nationalism, anti-clericalism, and most significantly, the "modern mind", a vague, passive resistance to faith and dogma built on ill-conceived, ill-considered ideas about the infallibility of science, the inevitability of progress, and the primacy of man. Of immense interest is Belloc's critique of compulsory state sponsored education--a fairly new thing in Britain at the time. He sees quite clearly that such an assembly line process leads to the weakening of parental authority, a deadening of intellectual acuity, and the development of a world view that prioritizes certain types of knowledge above a clear, rational sense of morality. All these effects, as Belloc prophetically observes, lead to social decay.

"New Arrivals" are developing enemies. With remarkable foresight, Belloc zeroes in on what he calls "Neo-Paganism", which is an attitude of despair, a flat rejection of absolute truth in faith and morals. Belloc accurately predicts the growth of this attitude in the West and the terrible damage it will unleash on our society and culture.

Belloc is enlightening as usual. He not only explains the nature of these movements, but sketches their historical roots, so that we get some sense of how these things developed, and why. It is easy to see that many of these oppostions exist today, although in somewhat different forms, described in different terms, and somehow jumbled up together in a vague secular attitude. The clear and thorough examination in this book helps us make sense of this jumble, and perhaps to formulate a response.

Rating:
Summary: Strange title, great book
Review: This book, despite the strange title is probably Belloc's greatest. It is, in some way, a follow-up of "Great Heresies".

"Survivals" are old methods for attacking the Catholic Church that are on the way out. For instance, the Biblical Attack accuses the Church of not interpreting the Old Testament literally enough: Biblical literalism is now untenable by anybody with a minimal knowledge of science. The "Wealth and Power" Attack stressed the superior material cultures of Protestant states: the increase in wealth of Catholic countries totally demolished it. The "Historical Argument" was based on bad history, etc.

The "Main Opposition" are the main forces that Belloc observed working against Catholicism at his time (1929). Nationalism (as opposed to Patriotism) was the main one. He predicted (correctly) that Nationalism would be weakened by the forces of international finance. Nowadays we have seen this prediction completely vindicated by the destruction not just of fanatic Nationalism, but also of legitimate Patriotism and National Sovereignty by the institution of global finance: the WTO and NAFTA, for instance.

The description of Anti-Clericalism should be very instructive to anybody from a protestant country, because Anti-Clericalism is the main opposition to the Faith in nominally Catholic countries. I was born in one (Italy) and I found Belloc's description most perceptive.

The third and worst of the main opposition forces is "The Modern Mind". Belloc's analysis of "The Modern Mind" alone is worth the price of the book. You really need to read his magnificent description of the phenomenon that today would be called "Post-Modernism".

"New Arrivals" are the future enemies that will fight the Faith in a final battle: They are the "New Paganism", "Witchcraft and Necromancy" and, finally, Anti-Christ. While Anti-Christ is not clearly identifiable, the pagan tendencies and the resurgence of idiotic (but dangerous) forms of occultism should be obvious to any observer of contemporary society.

The final chapter analyses the opportunities for the Church arising from the very nature of the opposing forces: the ugliness of paganism, the falsity of occultism and the total stupidity of the "Modern Mind" will offend even educated non-Christians and make them realize that something is seriously wrong.