Choose a topic from Vol 3:

God

Reason proves God's existence
Primitive monotheism
Mystery of God's inner nature
Personality of God
Providence of God and the problem of evil

Man

Immortal destiny of man
Can earth give true happiness?
Do human souls evolve?
Is transmigration possible?
Animal souls
Fatalism
Freedom of will
Free will and faith

Religion

Religion and God
The duty of prayer
The mysteries of religion
Can we believe in miracles?

The Religion of the Bible

Historical character of the Gospels
Canonical Books of the Bible
Original Manuscripts
Copyists' errors
Truth of the Bible
New Testament "contradictions"

The Christian Religion

Christianity alone true
Not the product of religious experience
Compared with Buddhism, Confucianism, Mahometanism, Bahaism, etc.,
Rejected by modern Jews
The demand for miracles
The necessity of faith
Difficulties not doubts
Proofs available
Dispositions of unbelievers

A Definite Christian Faith

One religion not as good as another
Changing one's religion
Catholic convictions and zeal
Religious controversy
The curse of bigotry
Towards a solution

The Problem of Reunion

Efforts at the reunion of the Churches
The Church of England as a "Bridge-Church"
Anglicans and the Greek Orthodox Church
The "Old Catholics" of Holland
Reunion Conferences
Catholic Unity
The Papacy as reunion center
Protestant hostility to Catholicism
The demands of charity

The Truth of Catholicism

Necessity of the Church
The true Church
Catholic claim absolute
A clerical hierarchy
Papal Supremacy
Temporal Power
Infallibility
Unity of the Church
Holiness of the Church
Catholicity of the Church
Catholic attitude to converts
Indefectible Apostolicity
Necessity of becoming a Catholic

The Church and the Bible

Catholic belief in the Bible
Bible-reading and private interpretation
Value of Tradition and the "Fathers"
Guidance of the Church necessary

The Dogmas of the Catholic Church

Dogmatic certainty
Credal statements
Faith and reason
The voice of science
Fate of rationalists
The dogma of the Trinity
Creation and evolution
The existence of angels
Evil spirits or devils
Man's eternal destiny
The fact of sin
Nature and work of Christ
Mary, the mother of God
Grace and salvation
The sacraments
Baptism
Confession
Holy Eucharist
The Sacrifice of the Mass
Holy Communion
Marriage and divorce
Extreme Unction
Man's death and judgment
Hell
Purgatory
Indulgences
Heaven
Resurrection of the body
End of the World

Moral Teachings of the Catholic Church

Conscience
Justice
Truth
Charity
Catholic intolerance
Persecution
The Spanish Inquisition
Prohibition of Books
Liberty of worship
Forbidden Socieities
Cremation
Church attendance
The New Psychology
Psychoanalysis
Deterministic philosophy
Sterilization
Marriage Legislation
Birth Prevention
Celibacy
Monastic Life
Convent Life
Euthanasia
Vivisection
Legal defense of murderers
Laywers and divorce proceedings
Judges in Divorce
Professional secrecy

The Church in Her Worship

Why build churches?
Glamor of ritual
The "Lord's Prayer"
Pagan derivations
Liturgical symbolism
Use of Latin
Intercession of Mary and the Saints

The Church and Social Welfare

The Church and Education
The Social Problem
Social Duty of the Church
Catholicism and Capitalism

The sacraments

796. Catholics seem to rely so much upon external rites such as their Sacraments. A spiritual life does not require external rites.

A spiritual life to be lived by human beings requires them. We are not angels. We have both a soul and a body, and religion must cater for our complete needs. We live by our senses, and acquire our certainty from sense data. Significant symbols, and rites and ceremonies play a big part in the individual and social lives even of those who object to our religious rites. God Himself respects our twofold spiritual and material nature, and leads us to Himself by means on our own level. The soul uses the bodily powers in God's service, and God uses the bodily rites called the Sacraments in communicating grace to men. He wishes to sanctify man just as man was made by Him.

797. God would not employ material things in His religion.

God employed material forces in our creation, and He employs them to recreate us in grace. It is quite normal that a material element should intervene in both cases. In our natural lives we use the forces of God immanent in nature. The Sacraments are the forces proper to God in our supernatural and spiritual lives.

798. Is not God Himself a spirit?

He is. But we are flesh. And we have to rise above the flesh to a spiritual plane, from the natural level to the God-level. To enable us to do so, the Eternal Son of God came down to earth and took flesh, obviously setting before us and using a material nature for our spiritual regeneration. It is quite in harmony with this that material and visible Sacraments should be used to continue the work of our spiritual regeneration.

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