Ronald Knox

[Randy_Carson]

I own a lot of apologetics books, and I’m pretty familiar with most of the major Catholic apologists as well as a fair number of those who are less well known.

However, one author I have not read AT ALL is the English priest, Ronald Knox (1888-1957). Knox was ordained an Anglican priest and later converted to Catholicism.

For anyone who has read his books, how do they compare to modern apologetics works?

 

[Fr_of_Jazz]

I own a lot of apologetics books, and I’m pretty familiar with most of the major Catholic apologists as well as a fair number of those who are less well known.

However, one author I have not read AT ALL is the English priest, Ronald Knox (1888-1957). Knox was ordained an Anglican priest and later converted to Catholicism.

For anyone who has read his books, how do they compare to modern apologetics works?

Ronald A. Knox wrote a classic work Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion, 1950. It is very well worth the read.

One of my favorite quotes in the whole work is this:
“But the implications of enthusiasm [religious extremism] go deeper than this; at the root of it lies a different theology of grace. Our traditional doctrine is that grace perfects nature, elevates it to higher pitch, so that it can bear its part in the music of eternity, but leaves it nature still. The assumption of the enthusiast is bolder and simpler; for him, grace has destroyed nature and replaced it.” Chap 1.