This edition had all images removed.
LoC No.: 26020535
Title: The Catholic Church and conversion
Original Publication: New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926.
Series Title: The Calvert series
Credits: Tim Lindell, Matthew Everett and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Summary: "The Catholic Church and conversion" by G. K. Chesterton is a religious apologetic treatise written in the early 20th century. It contends that Catholicism appears in the modern world as a fresh, disruptive reality rather than a mere survival, and examines conversion as the Church’s distinctive mark. Chesterton clears away popular anti-Catholic myths, contrasts national loyalties with the Church’s universal claim, and maps the inner journey from curiosity to resistance to assent. The opening of the treatise begins with an editor’s note stressing how converts, coming from every sort of background and by innumerable paths, powerfully witness to the Faith’s reality. Chesterton then argues that Catholicism functions today like a “new religion,” a living force that attracts where other traditions have grown stale; the Church’s true stamp is conversion, not mere tradition. He dismisses stock slanders (about Scripture, priests, and Jesuits), contrasts narrow patriotism with the Church’s prior and wider human solidarity, and identifies the real hurdles as fear of the Faith’s demanding virtues—especially the honesty and responsibility of confession—rather than the vices others allege. He outlines three stages of conversion (defending the Church from injustice, discovering its ideas, then trying to flee the final step) and finally flips the perspective: the Church is not one sect among many but the vast cathedral that contains them, while modern movements are partial exaggerations of Catholic truths; conversion, he insists, enlarges thought and freedom rather than confining them. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 62.3 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
Author: Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936
Editor: Belloc, Hilaire, 1870-1953
EBook No.: 76305
Published: Jun 15, 2025
Downloads: 248
Language: English
Subject: Conversion -- Catholic Church
LoCC: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.
This edition has images.
LoC No.: 26020535
Title: The Catholic Church and conversion
Original Publication: New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926.
Series Title: The Calvert series
Credits: Tim Lindell, Matthew Everett and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Summary: "The Catholic Church and conversion" by G. K. Chesterton is a religious apologetic treatise written in the early 20th century. It contends that Catholicism appears in the modern world as a fresh, disruptive reality rather than a mere survival, and examines conversion as the Church’s distinctive mark. Chesterton clears away popular anti-Catholic myths, contrasts national loyalties with the Church’s universal claim, and maps the inner journey from curiosity to resistance to assent. The opening of the treatise begins with an editor’s note stressing how converts, coming from every sort of background and by innumerable paths, powerfully witness to the Faith’s reality. Chesterton then argues that Catholicism functions today like a “new religion,” a living force that attracts where other traditions have grown stale; the Church’s true stamp is conversion, not mere tradition. He dismisses stock slanders (about Scripture, priests, and Jesuits), contrasts narrow patriotism with the Church’s prior and wider human solidarity, and identifies the real hurdles as fear of the Faith’s demanding virtues—especially the honesty and responsibility of confession—rather than the vices others allege. He outlines three stages of conversion (defending the Church from injustice, discovering its ideas, then trying to flee the final step) and finally flips the perspective: the Church is not one sect among many but the vast cathedral that contains them, while modern movements are partial exaggerations of Catholic truths; conversion, he insists, enlarges thought and freedom rather than confining them. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Reading Level: Reading ease score: 62.3 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.
Author: Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936
Editor: Belloc, Hilaire, 1870-1953
EBook No.: 76305
Published: Jun 15, 2025
Downloads: 248
Language: English
Subject: Conversion -- Catholic Church
LoCC: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Churches, Church movements
Category: Text
Rights: Public domain in the USA.