Choose a topic from Vol 4:

Religion - Yes or No

Necessity of Religion
Reality of Religious Experience
Religion and life
Religious statistics
Nature of religion
Necessity of worship
Neglect of religion
Religion and history
Conversion of mankind

The Christian Church

Nature of the Church
Necessity of the Church
Visible organisation
Hierarchical constitution
Papal supremacy
Perpetuity of the Church

"This Shall Be the Sign"

Notes of identification
Unity of the Church
Holiness of the Church
Catholicity of the Church
Apostolic succession
"Roman" but not "Roman Catholic"

Dogmatic Authority of the Church

Authority in religion
Catholic Church infallible
The Pope infallible
Papal definitions
Dogmatic spirit of the Catholic Church
"Religion of the spirit"
Individual freedom
Re-stating Christianity
Athanasian Creed
Meaning of faith
Faith and reason
Faith and science
Religion and education
Religion and morals
Catholic countries backward
Universities and religion
Natural Moral Law
Christian principles of morality
Catholicism versus the world

The Power-Complex Illusion

Legislative power of the Catholic Church
Coercive power of the Catholic Church
Catholic Church and political ambitions
Divided allegiance of Catholics
Rome and totalitarianism
Aim of the Catholic Church in America
Catholic Action
Political freedom of Catholics
Catholic infiltration of civic life
Catholicism anti-democatic
Rival totalitarianisms, Rome and Moscow
Catholic attitude to Protestants
Spanish Inquisition
Church and State
Federal Union or "One World State"

Life-Or-Death Social Problems

Social reform necessary
Socialism
Trade unions
Communism
Protestant Churches and Communism
Capitalism
Social apathy of Churches
Catholic social teaching
Marriage
Family life
Primary purpose of marriage
Religion and marriage
Form of marriage
Mixed marriages
Birth control
"Catholic birth control"
Divorce and re-marriage
Catholics and civil divorce
Nullity decrees
Therapeutic abortion
Euthansia or mercy-killing
War

Those Exclusive Claims

Divided Christendom
Do divisions matter?
The "Only True Church" claims
Cause of sectarian bigotry
Reunion Movement
Catholic non-cooperation

Religious Liberty

Religious freedom
Catholic intolerance
Protestants and the principles of religious liberty
Rome and the "Four Freedoms"
Heresy and heretics
Religious rights of Protestants
Religious persecution
Anti-semitism
"Rome's historical record"
Protestant missionaries in Spain
In Italy
In South America
Conditions in Colombia

Are Only Catholics Saved

"Outside the Catholic Church no salvation"
Beliefs of Catholics
Salvation of Pagans
Salvation of Protestants
Why become a Catholic?
Duty of inquiry
Salvation of apostate Catholics
Test at the Last Judgment
Obstacles to conversion
Truth of Catholicism

Necessity of Religion

1. Why plead for religion instead of devoting yourself to constructive and practical problems?

The most constructive and practical problem of all, not only now but for the future, is that of restoring religion in the lives of men. Aware of the necessity of religion, multitudes have never been less aware of how to find it. Yet they cannot go on with a purposeless existence.

2. The acids of modern life have eaten away belief in God and in religion.

And those thus affected have been left utterly discontented. But remember that the denial of religion came only after men had forsaken it in practice. If men ignore moral and spiritual values, living as if they were mere animals - high-grade ones if you wish, but still mere animals - then they will soon try to persuade themselves that they are only animals. That saves them from self-reproach which would arise from the thought that something better is expected of them. A sense of guilt is uncomfortable, and as long as a man retains any religious belief his delinquencies leave a sense of guilt. To have the delinquencies without the sense of guilt men denied religious belief and responsibility to God. But it doesn't really work. And as men get tired at being animals in the jungle they will turn back to God and religion. It's better to turn back sooner than later.

3. I am worried about this religious business. Why cannot we be content to leave the running of the universe to God instead of trying to help Him?

Why are you worried instead of contented without religion? For the rest, the religious man will tell you that our fulfillment of our religious duties is as much included in the way God intends this universe to be run as our breathing or taking our meals.

4. He knows His job better than we do.

God hasn't got a job. We have the job. God has rights. And all the rights are on God's side; all the duties on ours. But you talk as if you were on the same level as God-either dragging Him down to your own level on a fellow-worker basis, or lifting yourself to His level as if you too were Almighty God.

5. Would not people be much happier if they abandoned all religious dreams?

Genuine religion, in thought and in practice, is not merely religious dreaming. Nor, without religion, will people be happier. Their own disappointments, the sight of the suffering of others, the protests of conscience, and the thought of death putting an end to all their earthly plans compel the conviction that this world is not enough, that man is made for more than it can offer, and that religion alone can provide the answer to the whole problem of life.

6. Have not all religions made men engage in the futile search for a direct experience of some imagined God?

Whatever other religions have imagined God to be, I deny that the God who has revealed Himself in the Christian religion is any merely imaginary God. And it is wisdom itself to follow the advice of Christ, seeking first the kingdom of God and of His justice, to whatever other lesser interests we may also devote some of our attention.

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