Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion with Special Reference to the 17th and 18th Centuries

by Ronald Knox

Oxford Scholarly Classics brings together a number of great academic works from the archives of Oxford University Press. Reissued in a uniform series design, they will enable libraries, scholars, and students to gain fresh access to some of the finest scholarship of the last century.

Genres: Religion, History, Theology, Catholic, Church History, Christianity, Christian

630 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Monsignor Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, author of detective stories, as well as a writer and a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio.

Knox had attended Eton College and won several scholarships at Balliol College, Oxford. He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford, but he left in 1917 upon his conversion to Catholicism. In 1918 he was ordained a Catholic priest. Knox wrote many books of essays and novels. Directed by his religious superiors, he re-translated the Latin Vulgate Bible into English, using Hebrew and Greek sources, beginning in 1936.

He died on 24 August 1957 and his body was brought to Westminster Cathedral. Bishop Craven celebrated the requiem mass, at which Father Martin D'Arcy, a Jesuit, preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book traces the idea of "Enthusiasm" (basically, Christianity based upon appeals to emotion and interiority) in history. I thought this was an amazing bit of scholarship. Not only did Knox trace the history of movements, but linked them together just as well, a fine genealogist. The movement traces not only the more obscene (Convulsionaries and Donatists) but also the ordinary (Methodists and Quakers) without equivocation, but a scholar's eye and due proportion. I agree with the author when at the end says the book is not a criticism, but a study. Sure, it is not always kind to the Enthusiasts, but I think it's quite fair.

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preliminary review:

A book above books, the last chapters on 'The Philosophy of Enthusiasm' are a great work of dogmatic theology, and an excellent treatment of authority and autonomy in religion. Solo scriptura begets heresy, as the 'inner light', Bible, and personal reason merge to become one authority for the energumen, with great ripeness for self-deception to horrific consequences. Knox stops before the modern-day recrudescence of Montanism with tongues in the Pentecostal religion, which is why I originally read this - to trace the genesis of that heresy. But there is nothing new under the sun: in heresy, what is and was will be again. Irrefutable demonstration of the insufficiency of private interpretation is /in the story/ - no additional argument is needed. Demonstrated as well is the necessity and sufficiency of enthusiastic revival religion for the pitiful state of the church where feelings are everything and religion is supposed to 'do something I like'. pp 386-391.

'Ask not what the church can do for you, but what you can do for the church.'

Quibble: far too much untranslated French (over 80 passages), often used as the denouement, punchline, or as important color in his arguments - often you're left to deduce the punchline yourself, and often unable. Also some untranslated Latin, but I've had Wheelock. I don't know a word of French.

[Nathan Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knox looks into the minds of long-dead men and women, quickly intuits their virtues, and discusses their flaws with steadfast charity and good humor.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most perceptive analyses of a certain kind of religious tendency, one that crops up in nearly every era, that I've ever read. Once you've read Knox on religious enthusiasm, you recognize it cropping up in wildly different contexts, although with startling similar lineaments each time. I am impressed that Monsignor Knox was able to perform this work of intellectual taxonomy while maintaining his customary attitude of Christian charity.

[Graychin · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can be said about this book? It’s a monument – not only to “enthusiasm” (culpable exuberance of a particular kind) in the history of western religion, but to Knox himself, whose well-ordered mind and well-ordered prose I will only be able to match in my most self-glorifying dreams.

[Katie Wagner]

I can't wait to read more by Ronald Knox. This particular book traces the heresy of Enthusiasm from about 200 AD through the 19th Century. Knox is witty and compassionate in his treatment of his subjects. Here are some common traits of the Enthusiast: a distrust of reason and education, a practice of going into trance like states and imaging you're hearing from God because it is so emotional, often a wealthy woman sponsor is involved in financing the group, and a condescension towards those so unenlightened as to not be part of your group. From the Phrygians in the second century who would fall into a swoon and babble things while their admirers wrote it all down as coming from the gift of prophecy (the fathers of the Church conferred about this and advised people that if you receive a prophecy from God your reason must also be involved and it was dangerous to open yourself to whatever chose to channel babblings through you) to the Montanists, Anabaptists and others.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real disappointment. The book does not live up to its billing. The author is extremely tendentious and often relies on poor secondary literature, even for 1950. This is particularly true for the older movements outside the Roman Catholic Church. The portrayal of Anabaptism, for instance, is particularly bad.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazed at the level of scholarship Msgr Knox went to, bringing these troubled characters alive
not always the most thrilling stuff, but necessary reading to understand the origins of a number of heresies, some which didn't last and some which are still around today

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

i now know that the theology i was brought up with was basically evangelical jansenism - that one must sensibly feel one's redemption and thereafter constantly check whether one is in a state of grace, and that if i had remained a christian, i would have been attracted towards quietism, which is the opposite - kind of like a really unpleasant buddhism. this was not on offer in my church (the quietism or the buddhism).

Knox also puts his finger on something that was obvious to me as a child when he sums up the different strains of enthusiasm in his conclusion: "always you find this morbid distrust of the intellect cropping up ... the evangelical ... regards the Bible, not the inner light [as do the mystics:], as the ultimate source of theological certainty. But, in so far as he is true to type, he will reject the interpretations offered to him by scholars. He prefers to get down 'his' Bible and 'see what it says'". this is perhaps doing many members of the congregation an injustice (we had a minister who was interested in exegesis) but i certainly saw a lot of this kind of behaviour when we were living in the community later on.

i also saw just about every example that Knox gives of the various sects' behaviour - fainting ('slain in the spirit'), glossolaly ('speaking in tongues'), sustained weeping and/or laughing, screaming and possesion by devils (i've never forgotten one particular occasion), prophesying in english and 'unknown languages' and 'interpretation' of the latter - except the jansenist convulsionaries, some of whom seem to have behaved like the characters in von Trier's The Idiots, and probably for similar reasons. but i didn't read this for the religious aspects per se, i read it for the historical period, and there were certainly some fascinating personalities, including some incredibly strong-minded, if probably also deranged, women. inspiring stuff. also, people don't change all that much.

[Jill Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent survey of the history of charismatic or revivalist Christianity throughout the history of the Western Church. The author, a highly respected Roman Catholic writer, spent 30 years researching his labour of love. He set out in the first instance to demonstrate that 'enthusiasm' in religion is always dangerous and a threat to Christian unity. But as his work progressed he realised that this was far too simplistic a position, and that without mystical and evangelical visionaries the institutional Church would be much the poorer. It's quite a heavy read, particularly if one is not already interested in obscure French heretics from the 17th and 18th centuries. But it is especially fascinating when dealing with the origins of Quakerism, Methodism etc.. There is nothing new about the Toronto Blessing...

[Erik]

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 20, as one of Ten Books on the Humanities.

Included in the "History and Culture" section of Fr. John McCloskey's 100-book Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just stupendous.