The Belief of Catholics Quotes

“A rush age cannot be a reflective age.”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“Dogmas may fly out at the window but congregations do not come in at the door.”
― Ronald Arbuthnott Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“It is an infinitely small point, but does the abandonment, total or partial, of the clerical garb by some modern clergymen really make the laity feel more at home with them?”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“It appears, then, that the two processes are going on side by side, the decline of Church membership and the decline of dogma; the evacuation of the pew and the jettisoning of cargo from the pulpit.”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“I have suggested above, the pilots of our storm-tossed denominations have lost no opportunity of lightening ship by jettisoning every point of doctrine that seemed questionable, and therefore unessential; hell has been abolished, and sin very nearly; the Old Testament is never alluded to but with a torrent of disclaimers, and miracle with an apologetic grimace.”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“No preacher would deliberately judge the credibility of his message by the credulity of his audience. But the prevalent irreligion of the age does exercise a continual unconscious pressure upon the pulpit; it makes preachers hesitate to affirm doctrines whose affirmation would be unpopular. And a doctrine which has ceased to be affirmed is doomed, like a disused organ, to atrophy. That”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics

“the leaders of Protestant thought are desperately guessing at the truth, and covering up their uncertainties with equivocal phrases and sentimental whitewash. Really, the sight of it would almost make you want to be a Roman Catholic, if the Roman Catholics did not believe such impossible things.”
― Ronald Knox, The Belief of Catholics