| CATHOLIC EVIDENCE TRAINING OUTLINES |
| Compiled By Maisie Ward
|
| No one
should attempt to use this book without having made a careful study of the
Introduction.
The speakers are again reminded that these are not street-corner outlines but class outlines to prepare them for the street corner. With A Foreword By His Eminence Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster Nihil Obstat Imprimatur Westmonasterii, die 2 Februarii, 1928. First published 1925 London: Sheed & Ward Foreword To The First Edition Archbishop's House, Westminster, March 2nd, 1925. We welcome the publication of "Catholic Evidence Training Outlines." The Catholic Evidence Guild of Westminster has already given clear proof of zeal and efficiency, and in so doing has gathered much valuable experience in the preparation of catechists and in the presentation of the truths taught by the Catholic Church. "Training Outlines" place this accumulated experience at the service of other Guilds to whom they will prove of very great use. The Clergy, too, may profit by these notes and gather from them fresh ideas for the setting forth of the philosophy and theology, of which they have received a fuller and more technical knowledge during their preparation for the Priesthood, in a manner adapted to the capacity of the average man at the present day. We earnestly bless the compilers of these "Outlines" and congratulate them on their work. Francis Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop Of Westminster. Dedication Of The First Edition Dear Dr. Arendzen, In asking your permission to dedicate this volume to you I feel I am but giving back to you something the best part of which was already yours. It is not merely that a few of these outlines have been made from notes taken from your own lectures; it is far more that at the back of all we do we feel the inspiration that your thoughts and your guidance bring to us. All our best work is done with the desire to be not too unworthy of those thoughts and of that guidance. When then I had gathered this volume together I knew it would be the wish of my fellow-speakers whose work has gone into this collection that we should offer it to you as a poor token of the gratitude and affection of the whole Guild. Yours sincerely, The Hut, Contents Foreword —2. How to Develop your Ideas —3. How to Handle a Crowd —4. Questions and Interjections —5. On Forestalling Objections in the Course of your Speech —6. Chairmanship —7. Class-Taking —8. Practice Night —9. Thoughts for Senior Speakers Course I For Junior Speakers PART I —1. The Church Founded by Christ a Visible Body —2. The Church a Supernatural Fact —3. The Church and the Bible —4. The Bible in the Church —5. The Rule of Faith —6. Bible Reading in the Church —7. Marks of the Church (in general) —8. Unity and Catholicity —9. Apostolicity —10. Holiness —11. Supremacy of the Pope —12. Infallibility PART II —1. The Supernatural Life —2. Prayer —3. The Sacramental Principle —4. The Mass —5. The Blessed Eucharist —6. The Priesthood —7. The Catholic Moral System —8. Marriage —9. Our Lady and the Saints —10. Our Lady —11. Purgatory —12. The Externals of Worship Course II For Senior Speakers PART I —1. Indifference —2. Faith and Reason —3. Revelation —4. Authenticity of the Gospels: External Evidence —5. Authenticity of the Gospels: Internal Evidence —6. Inspiration —7. The Trinity —8. The Theology of the Incarnation —9. The Incarnation: —(1) Is it a Possibility?; —(2) Universal Views —10. The Divinity of Christ —11. Christ a Unique Figure "Focusing Prophecy and Radiating Miracle" —12. Christ as Teacher and Revealer —13. What did Christ Claim? —14. Prophecy. (In Proof of Christ's Claims.) —15. Miracles. (In Proof of Christ's Claims.) —16. The Resurrection. (In Proof of Christ's Claims.) —17. The Fall and Original Sin —18. The Redemption PART II —1. Development of Doctrine —2. The Church and Judaism (1) —3. The Church and Judaism (2) —4. The Church and Paganism —5. Comparative Religion —6. St. Paul and his Epistles —7. The Church, Christ's Mystical Body— (in St. Paul's Epistles and Today) —8. The Church and the Early Heresies —9. Grace and the Heresy of Early Protestantism —10. Heaven and Hell and the Heresy of Later Protestantism PART III Introduction —1. Existence of God—Introductory —2. Existence of God—Argument from Design —3. Existence of God—Argument from Contingency —4. Materialism and Pantheism —5. Problem of Evil —Questions on Lectures 1-5 —6. The Human Soul —7. The Soul a Simple Spiritual Substance —8. Free-Will —9. Immortality Course III Specimen Historical Lectures —1. Julian the Apostate —2. Hermits —3. Mahomedanism —4. Persecution —5. St. Peter Claver and the Slaves General Bibliography Note To New Edition The wide welcome given to the first edition of "Training Outlines" came as a pleasant surprise. Two large editions have sold out—far more than enough to have provided all guildsmen in this country plus Australia and Holland with three or four copies each. Meanwhile the Guild movement has been advancing, and with it we hope our training material—our power to use the great truths of the faith more effectively on the platform. Outlines have been accumulated on fresh subjects, better outlines made on the old subjects. The question arose of publishing a second series, but after some consideration it has been decided rather to issue a new, greatly enlarged and much revised edition. The principal changes are: (1) Introductory essay on principles of training and manner of using the outlines. (2) A whole new section of some eight or ten lectures on natural religion—the existence, nature and attributes of God, the soul, the problem of evil, etc. (3) A new section of six historical outlines—specimen lectures designed to show how history may be used to illustrate Catholic principles. (4) To the previously existing courses there are added: (a) New subjects such as "Prayer" (3 outlines), (c) Many alterations of existing outlines and one or two deletions. (5) An additional technical lecture on "Special Difficulties of Senior Speakers." (6) There are about three times as many questions as before. (7) The literature has been revised and many more books added. The compiler owes special thanks above all to Dr. Arendzen who, as stated in the introduction, has furnished the material of our best outlines; also to Fr. Pontifex, O.S.B. of the Westminster Guild, and to Fr. Jefferys and Dr. Avery of the Newcastle Guild, for most welcome suggestions and help. Introduction Problem Of Guild Training What is the problem which Guild Training has to solve ? That of enabling the ordinary Catholic to explain the truths of his religion in such a way as to reach the understanding of a heterogeneous crowd. The members of this crowd differ in class, race, culture, education. They agree only in having: (a) No knowledge whatever of Catholic Truth; To meet this the ordinary Catholic starts with a certain knowledge of his religion which he is not always very capable of expressing clearly, which at best he puts forth in theological terms familiar to himself—and fatally familiar also to his audience. He talks cheerfully of the Immaculate Conception (and they think he means the Virgin Birth) of Infallibility (and they imagine a claim that Alexander VI was entirely sinless) of Extreme Unction (which they suppose to be a kind of torture). How many of us have heard a young speaker lucidly and coherently conveying to a crowd something which he did not mean! This arises from two things—one that his own knowledge of his religion is not clear and deep enough for him to make it clear to others, and secondly that to one living in a Catholic atmosphere the thoughts of the crowd and their religious language are totally unfamiliar. The days are gone when one type of Guild enthusiast maintained that no more equipment was required than an ardent love for the Faith which of itself produced eloquence—or at least a flow of words that sounded passably like it (ignorance being rather an asset than otherwise); while the other type held that a sound knowledge of theology was the only requirement. After nine years of experience, even the most extreme enthusiasts in both camps have come to realize that Guild Training has to meet a double need. It must teach doctrine, but not only teach doctrine. The beginner needs knowledge: (a) Of his subject; Efficient training takes all these needs into account and, while taking its pupils deeper and deeper into Catholic doctrine, never loses sight of the platform. The speaker needs for his work: Let us look at the present volume as a basis for training and see how it can be best used to meet these needs. Outlines As Basis Of Training It is obviously necessary for Guild training to have some one book in which the various subjects of Catholic apologetics may be given to the class in such a way as to prepare them for the platform. At the beginning of the Guild's existence in Westminster in 1918 a manual of apologetics, the admirable book of Archbishop Sheehan, was used as the basis of Training, and the course followed was based upon it. Later Father Martindale's "Words of Life" was taken as a sort of skeleton, the copies given to the class being interleaved with references to other books. "Words of Life "and Sheehan's "Apologetics" are still among the books recommended as indispensable to the guildsman but it was early felt that for platform purposes a different treatment was needed as a basis, and this for two reasons. (1) Any manual of apologetics proceeds logically, taking first the existence of God and natural religion, then revelation divinity of Christ, and finally the Church. For the guildsman this process has to be reversed. He must proceed from the better to the less known, learning first to handle effectively the simpler subjects. He must understand the value of Her marks as proving the Church's divine origin, be able to lecture on the use of externals, the sacramental principle and all those things which, making up Catholic doctrine and practice, are in fact the very life which he, as a Catholic, lives. When he is really able to handle these subjects convincingly he goes on to the subjects centering in the Incarnation and finally to the Existence of God and natural religion. (2) A manual of apologetics, indeed several such manuals, are needed to gather the material for lecturing on any subject, but no manual gives a line suitable for a lecture, and such a line is a vital necessity to a young guildsman, if he is to convey anything at all to his crowd. (3) The compiler of this book would not, however, dogmatize as to its position as a basis of training, although believing in it from a fairly wide experience. Should some other book or system be used as a course in apologetics it is hoped that the Outlines may still prove useful. They represent methods of conveying Catholicism to a crowd which have been tried repeatedly and successfully out of doors. They are not directly street-corner outlines as each contains too much material for one street-corner lecture, but they indicate the possible methods of handling the subjects, warn beginners of the unsuccessful methods, and in general place at their disposal the fruit of some nine years' experience of a number of speakers on the outdoor platform. It cannot too often be emphasized that whether the basis of training chosen be a manual of apologetics or this volume any one book can only be a basis. The other reading indicated must be used; the subject must be carefully lectured on by the Trainer and assimilated by the class; any treatment proposed must be tried out in the class, criticized and improved. No book is going to be a short cut to the platform in the sense of saving the lazy student from work. To be a good speaker must involve work. What the outlines will provide, even more we hope in this new edition, is a good guide and ground-plan both for the trainer and the speaker. To show how they may be used, each Course, and the questions must now be glanced at separately. Technical Lectures Although these outlines are arranged as a course they are not meant to be given straight through, but to be interspersed between the "subject" lectures. The following points should be noted: (a) The aim of these lectures is to impress on the student a right outlook towards the Church that sends him, the work he is learning to do, the crowd he is approaching. (b) The student is taught in these lectures how to listen at classes, read, take notes, arrange his material. (c) He learns how to handle crowds and to avoid the mistakes which all beginners inevitably make unless they are warned. (d) The trainer who uses these outlines will soon learn what points need special emphasis in a given class and Guild, and his own platform experience will teach him how to utilize, add to and improve on these hints so as to bring his class into a high state of efficiency. For detailed advice on training he will himself do well frequently to consult lectures 8 and 9. It is often asked how to fill in the class-time left after a technical lecture, so as to be of the greatest benefit to the students, and in answer to this question the following suggestions are made. After-Lectures 1 and 3, "General Outlook," and "How to Handle a Crowd," question members of your class as to how one should act in some among the following or other very usual circumstances:— (a) When opening a meeting in an empty street. After Lecture 2, "How to Develop your Ideas," either set members of the class to sketch a line on a given subject and other members to find out flaws in it, or yourself chalk up an outline on the blackboard with a link missing from it and set the class to find out what is wrong. After Lecture 4, "Questions and Interjections," put to members of the class involved and obscure questions, teach them how to cross-question in order to draw out the questioner's meaning. They will generally at first answer the question without having understood it. Show them that they have done this. Teach them how to treat (a) obviously insincere, (b) rude, (c) personal, (d) meaningless questions. Collect specimens of interjections on various subjects, and show your class how to treat them. Question them on how to make use of interruptions and, when to ignore them, etc. Allow plenty of time after each of these lectures for questions from the class. Their experience will be of value to each other and to the lecturer, and often starts fresh useful ideas on the technical side of the work. It also shows whether they have understood the lecture or not. Lectures 7, 8 and 9 are only given to Senior Classes and afford a good opportunity for chairmen to compare notes and correct their defects. Lecture 8, "Class-Taking" should, if possible, be followed by a course of practice in class-taking by Senior students. The method for this usually followed in Westminster is to work through the Junior syllabus in the Senior class, taking each subject a few days before it is to be given to the Juniors. A Senior student is chosen who gives the lecture to his fellows and takes the class questioning them and being questioned by them. The last part of the time-table is filled with criticisms by the class chairman instead of short speeches. A few days later the student can, if he likes, hear the same subject handled in the Junior class by a lecturer of longer experience. He is thus enabled to correct and amplify his own work, and if he proves efficient is shortly given further practice in class-taking. This method has proved helpful in sifting out useful from useless class-takers without running the risk of spoiling the junior class by experiments. Lecture 10, "The Senior Speaker," is a new one. All Guilds that have been founded long enough have felt the difficulties under which the senior speaker suffers. An attempt has been made to meet them in this lecture, and if it is given firmly and sympathetically class-takers will find it helpful in dispelling "staleness," recalling ideals better appreciated in earlier days and rallying seniors to fresh efforts. The Doctrinal Courses (A) Junior Course I and II. Bearing in mind that the whole of the training work has to be done in the closest connection with the street corner, the reader will understand the arrangement of subjects which follows. The Junior Course is made up of subjects which it is reasonable to hope a beginner may learn to handle in a fairly short time (except for Lecture 2 in Part I and Lectures 1 and 3 in Part II, which are given to beginners not for use on the platform but as a necessary background to their study). These subjects are what the crowd chiefly needs as well as what our speakers can most readily handle. By insisting on these subjects we are gradually making religion more definite to our crowds and insensibly drawing them into the atmosphere of Catholic Christianity at first so foreign to them. (B) Senior Course, Parts I and II. When our speakers have been through the first course once or twice, they should be ready for the Senior course, of which Part I centers in the Incarnation. This course also consists chiefly, but not entirely, of subjects that can be handled out of doors. The Divinity of Our Lord must be given frequently by competent speakers and followed or preceded by lectures on Miracles and on the Resurrection in proof of His claims. Lectures on the Authenticity of the Gospels are also most useful to the crowds, and whether speakers give this subject in lecture form or not they will most certainly be driven back on to it by the questions arising out of the lecture on the Divinity of Christ. Part II is concerned with the Church as Christ's mystical body, in itself and in its relation to Paganism, Judaism, the early heresies and Protestantism. Only very experienced speakers can lecture on these subjects out of doors, but they are becoming more and more necessary, and all senior speakers should have some knowledge of them. Senior Course, Part III. In the introduction to the last edition we explained the absence of lectures on natural religion partly on the ground that what the crowd needs is Christ and His Church, but also because no guildsman had had a wide enough experience outdoors to draw up really practical outlines on this section of the work. It still remains true that revealed religion must be the principal part of our work; but in certain crowds the demand for discussion of the existence of God and the nature of the soul has grown more insistent, and we have tried to meet it in this edition. But we must warn speakers of the appalling difficulty of the subjects concerned, a difficulty made all the worse because most of the simple text-books give the impression that they are quite easy to handle. These give the traditional arguments (which the speaker learns) and the answers (which the speaker also learns) to the traditional objections. What they cannot give is: (a) those same questions in the odd and unrecognizable form in which they come to us from the crowd; and (b) the vast variety of new and ingenious objections which will be put by hecklers who know the ordinary objections as well as we do. In fact, no book can by itself equip a speaker for a task which demands on the one side a very thorough philosophical grounding, and on the other a very exact knowledge (only possible after much experience) of what the minds of his hearers can manage. The outlines we give in this section, therefore, even more than in other sections, are for the use of the teacher (who must already know the subject very thoroughly) and for the class only in so far as it wants some sort of skeleton on which to hang the instruction given by the teacher aforesaid. Historical Lectures. While but few seniors are competent to handle fundamental subjects, many feel the need of presenting the simpler subjects in a fresh way. A course of history has been found very successful in the class, and those speakers who are prepared to read solidly can find many ways in which doctrine and apologetic can be presented in historical form. Only a few examples are included, but it will be seen how the note of sanctity can be shown in such lectures as "The Hermits" or "St. Peter Claver," and how the unique and supernatural character of the Church emerges in lectures such as "Julian the Apostate" and "Mahommedanism." But let no speaker attempt history without very thorough reading! The Trainer's Use Of The Doctrinal Courses Teachers will always find the experience of others useful; when first they are learning to teach it is indispensable. Most of these outlines have grown from the joint experience of teachers during several years of work, and do represent, if not the best, at least a tried and valuable method of conveying the lesson to the class. A good way of preparing a subject is: (1) To study the existing outlines. It is very rash to trust to memory and an old outline, even if originally made by oneself. Each class must be prepared for, however well the subject is known, if it is to be well taken. If at all possible the trainer will hold two classes a week, especially for beginners. On one night he will work through the junior course of subjects with, roughly, this time table: 30 min. lecture The second night he will devote entirely to practice speaking by members of the class, on subjects which they are preparing for their tests; he must make sure that the questions are really answered and that the junior who is practicing gets asked all the really vital questions on his subject and answers them. While practice speaking becomes less necessary once the junior is on the platform, question taking in class remains of the first importance. Unless even senior speakers are given a great deal of it their question taking out of doors is liable to become dull, inadequate and even inaccurate. In smaller guilds the two sorts of class are frequently held on the one night, an hour's practice following on the training class proper. Technical lectures 8 and 9 should be carefully studied by all new trainers. The Student's Use Of The Courses (a) Where there is a trainer. The student, like the trainer, should possess a copy of the "Outlines" or, if this is not possible, anyhow a copy of the particular subject he is preparing for the platform. He should read all he can get of the literature advised, look up the subject in Conway's "Question Box" and test his own answering of all the questions given at the end of the outline. He should look up every text, seeing what the context is, in what circumstances Our Lord or the Apostles used the words quoted, how they are understood by the Protestant and how the Church explains them. (b) Where there is no trainer. In certain towns guilds have been started where no priest-trainer or even experienced layman was available. Here speakers have trained themselves by a thorough use of the "Outlines," and the "Question Box," lecturing to and heckling each other and ultimately passing their tests before priests in a neighboring town and appearing on the platform with thoroughly creditable first lectures. The Use Of The Questions In This Book A trainer will do well not to let a junior go in for a test until he has answered satisfactorily every question here given on his subject. The questions have been greatly added to with a view to thus covering the ground. There is sometimes also a difference of opinion among examiners as to the standard to be required of a candidate. If it be remembered that every one of these questions has been asked repeatedly out of doors and will be asked again they may be helpful to examiners. No speaker who fails in answering any of them will be safe on his subject on the platform. The connection between some of the questions and the subjects to which they are appended may not always be obvious at first; but experience shows that those subjects usually give rise to those questions. Testing There are three kinds of licenses: single subjects, chairmen and general. It is held as a vital principle in Westminster that no test should be held without a priest. Senior speakers can train other speakers for the platform, but the responsibility of licensing them as adequate in their doctrinal knowledge rests with the examining chaplains. A senior speaker is also present at tests to put "crowd" questions and is known as the "Devil's Advocate." An interesting discussion at an Inter-Guild Retreat showed that the standard in licensing varies very much from Guild to Guild, and anyone who has followed the movement closely will realize that in individual Guilds it also varies from year to year. A successful Guild, which is progressing steadily, raises its standard constantly. It may be interesting to note the standard at present required in Westminster for the three kinds of license. Single Subject. Thorough knowledge of the subject and power to deliver a sufficiently interesting lecture on it. General knowledge of Catholic doctrine in its relation to that subject (see below) and capacity to distinguish the limits of the subject chosen and of one's own information. Chairman's License. Recommendation by the Master and three squad leaders as competent to handle a crowd, conduct a meeting and handle Juniors. Ability to answer general questions including those on: —The Existence of God. A chairman's license almost always takes two or three years to gain, often longer. Speakers are used as "Acting Chairmen" before they are presented for it. They have generally been through the junior course twice and the senior course at least once before they are presented. Chairmen may still only lecture on the subjects they have passed in, but may take general questions. General License. These are hardly ever given—only about one in two years: they authorize the holder to lecture on any doctrine whether he has been tested on it or not. The same sort of questions are asked as in the examination for Chairman's License but a higher standard of knowledge is required. Very few gain this license with less than five or six years' work and experience. Every speaker under the rank of General License must take at least one new subject every year. If a chairman fails to do so he has to be re-examined for his Chairman's License. In cases where guildsmen have given up speaking for some years and returned to the Guild re-examination takes place even for General License. This was the voluntary suggestion of the first holder of a General License to be placed in this position and has always been followed without need of a rule being formulated. Examinations other than Tests. In testing for the outdoor work the system of taking one subject at a time has proved most satisfactory when applied with thoroughness. Indeed the examiners have asked to have some of the larger subjects made into several tests, e.g. the Divinity of Our Lord. Students have now to take this test in three parts: —(1) Christ's Claim to Godhead. But in addition to platform testing, trainers have felt the need of a method of deciding with certainty when to move speakers up from the junior to the senior courses and to see how fully they have been following the courses. To meet this, written papers are now set on the course every three months or so, which do not apply to platform work but which do test general knowledge. Surveying The Ground However well the class trainer conducts his courses it will always be found that some students do not relate one doctrine with another sufficiently clearly to get into their heads a real ground plan of the Church's teaching. To meet this difficulty the Newcastle Guild have introduced a lecture which may be given at the beginning of both junior and senior courses. Since it stands at the head of all training it is given here rather than as a part of one of the courses. Every teacher will arrange the manner of giving it in his own way. The position and relationship of any doctrine to the whole may become clearer if we have before our minds a summary of the whole logical sequence from the existence of God down to the latest definition of Dogma by the Church. The following may serve as a sketchy outline of this logical sequence, and from it the speaker may easily find the position of any subject that may be taken for platform treatment. He will then realize how much he must take for granted in dealing with his point, and also when a questioner is pushing him from his point on to a more fundamental one on which he may not be authorized to speak. (A) Broadest Outline: (B) Each of these subjects has a host of divisions, one leading to another, of which the following will give a very general summary: (1) (a) Existence of God. (2) (a) Angels. (3) (a) The Creator's aim and object. (4) Proof of Revelation through the following steps: (5) (a) What Faith is. (6) Under this heading comes the whole of Theology properly so-called: To the judgment of those who are already speaking out of doors and are training other speakers this volume is offered with some confidence. The outlines have been found of practical utility in the past and it is hoped that Guildsmen will criticize them (and improve upon them) while making use of them in the future. The test of the platform is the crucial test and must always be applied to work done for the Guild. But what of the critic who reads but cannot himself make use of this volume? We fear he will say with some justice that many of the outlines lack smoothness and polish. They do: and this is true of some of those that have proved the most serviceable. They are by different hands and each Guildsman has his own way of setting out a lecture scheme: they sometimes embody ideas very valuable for a crowd, uninteresting to Catholics: above all they are merely outlines and not finished lectures. This last point we would ask all readers to remember. And if this book falls into the hands of any Catholic layman, not yet a Guildsman, we would appeal to him to abandon the arm-chair for the platform, and thus to substitute for theory the practical criticism of a fellow catechist. As with the first edition so with this there is no claim to completeness, or finality. If this edition is judged an improvement on the last the compiler will owe it to Guildsmen critics: it is hoped that with their help the next edition may be an improvement on this—and so on, forever. Arrangement Of Courses Junior Class—The lectures on the Mass and the Blessed Eucharist and Marriage have been found more suitable for seniors. The normal junior course, therefore, is the whole of Course I (both parts) except these three subjects, with the first five Technical Lectures interspersed at more or less regular intervals. Senior Class—A normal senior course is as follows: (b) Course II, Part III. Though this course or something like it must always be the staple of senior training, it is not wise to recommence it as soon as it is completed: short courses like Course II, Part II, Course III; heckling classes on Junior subjects; practice in class-taking by senior students; and others which will suggest themselves, provide useful variants. Training Outlines Technical Lectures 1. General Outlook of a Catholic street-corner Apologist 1. General Outlook Of A Catholic Street-Corner Apologist Literature: The whole of the Handbook. (C.T.S., is. 6d.) Sheed: The Catholic Evidence Guild. (C.T.S.) Qualities both of Heart and of Head necessary for the work: 1. Heart (a) We must realize we are servants of the crowd; respect, friendliness, desire to help—all of a highly practical nature. The crowd will take our very best work and ask for more. (b) We have a responsibility, also, to the Church. The burden of Catholicism is not light. Deeds count more than words. Character stands far above knowledge or oratorical skill. Moreover the crowds "sense" character. (c) Make a strong moral appeal throughout. Self-reverence and self-control. Teach the Ten Commandments always—they are badly needed. 2. Head (a) We Catholics know where we stand, hence unfairness or lack of candor are inexcusable in us. Clearness, consistency, conciseness: all are intimately dependent on knowing our subjects. (b) Our aim, therefore, should always be to reach "that judicial platform from which the most unfailingly effective argument proceeds" and (c) To teach positive truth; truth fills space and will oust error if only brought out in full against it; and (d) To teach the Church as one, great, living whole, and her ideals as living things. Each will then preach the other. 2. How To Develop Your Ideas Reading. Digesting. Arranging. 1. Reading Not an enormous amount required: reading with a pencil: the result a jumble of facts and texts and phrases. 2. Digesting You must have a thorough understanding of your matter in itself and in its relation to all things else: it must be pondered over and gazed at from every standpoint: you must make it YOURS, (a) Historically in its foundation and development. Analogy of London: which can only be understood in its relation to England, in its historical development and in the work it does. (a) Foundation and Development. Scripture: some texts (and contexts) must be known thoroughly. Get very clearly what was in the mind of our Lord, or the apostle whose words you use: with reverence you may ask WHY? (Also notice apparently contrary texts.) Development: you must know what attitude the Church adopted at different stages of its history: when she defined: when she might seem not to have laid so much stress and why? (b) Its Relations to the rest of Catholic Doctrine. In all this you have been working on your idea, and seeing its birth and growth you have almost inevitably a clearer view of the doctrine as it stands now. But Catholic doctrines are not a collection of oddments flung together like curios in a pawnshop window: they are not even like books arranged alphabetically or in some other convenient way on the shelves of a library. They are a family related one to another by the closest ties: you must study your idea in its setting: in its relation to the whole body of the Church's teaching. Look on the Church's teaching as a countryside of which you are enabled to take a bird's-eye view: First you see the Great Dogmas like the great centers: the Trinity, the Incarnation, Original Sin and Free Will, the Immortality of the Soul. Then you see the smaller towns: Confession, the Priesthood, Matrimony. And smaller still the villages: roads between: from which the life pulses out: while even the smallest village in the Church's countryside gives something to the greatest metropolis. You must then know each doctrine in its relation to the mass: in your mind it must not be isolated, since it gains vastly in meaning from its position. (c) The Doctrine in Action. Having thus seen the doctrine in its birth, its growth and its varied
relationships, you must now see it in ACTION. And to do this fully you must
ponder on In (i) be very thorough in thinking out just what it means to you, and what the effect on you would be of the loss of it. In (ii) try to imagine what difference it would make to your non-Catholic
listeners if they accepted it; and to do so thoroughly you must realize that in
its place they either have You may now claim to have for practical purposes mastered your idea: you can toss it from hand to hand; you can set it down, walk round it and look clearly at it; you can look at it from above, or turn it upside down and look at it from below: you know where it is likely to arouse opposition: and where it is likely to make an appeal: in short, it is yours. 3. Arranging (a) Our job is not to utter a message: it is to deliver a message: to deliver it to people—to people who either are determined not to receive it, or who at best will not make any effort to receive it. We have to persuade them that something is essential which they have managed to do without all their lives. So that we must remember that we have not only to prove our doctrines (which means a lecture), but to prove them to people (which means a speech). (b) People are extremely human: quite as human as we: and the human mind can only with profit receive one thing at a time: so that it is definitely necessary to make our speech concern itself with one subject only. We should be able to express the exact object of each speech in one sentence. The dangers to which we are liable are: —(i) Talking of everything. (c) Simple words must be used: the crowd do not know words like "finite," "infinite," "Immaculate Conception," "Judaism," impeccability," "contrition," etc. (d) The lecture must be short: not more than twenty minutes. We must have one idea and a plan, simple and vertebrate (and thus easy to remember). It must have: (e) Do not learn by heart: learn your plan as a matter of four or five points (each to occupy four or five minutes) and know exactly what you wish to say on each point. 3. How To Handle A Crowd Literature: Donelly. The Art of Interesting. Chaps. 9, 15, 16. 1. Our object is to secure that each person that hears us shall carry away with him the greatest possible amount of Catholicism in thought and in action. We therefore summon to our aid the "Crowd" habit, knowing that, if we do not, it will be used against us. 2. A disorganized mass is not a crowd. Ten men may be, and a thousand men may not be, a crowd. A crowd is formed by a community of interest: by the turning of feelings and thoughts in a common direction. Individual self-consciousness and certain ordinary limitations disappear, some emotions and faculties are reduced and others reinforced and exalted. The business of creating a crowd consists in providing the common channel of interest as quickly as possible. Hecklers are a great help throughout, but particularly in the preliminary steps towards creating a crowd. 3. Once a crowd is formed we proceed by repeated blows to drive deeper the original impression made. Repetition, clear statement, concrete affirmation, conviction, a well-controlled humor are the qualities to aim at here. Aim at being yourself—at personality. All technical skill in speaking is only a way of "freeing" personality. Live modern men are wanted. Plain, above-board, even downright methods are required. "Be cheap yet deep." Choose your own line and do not be put off it by hecklers. The speaker must be the leader of the crowd. Self-mastery in all its forms is essential. Avoid overt reasoning; it bores. But you must have done it before speaking yourself, and your handling of your subject must be equal to any logical test that may be applied. 4. What kind of material can they take? The best subjects (i.e. those which provide the best channel of "crowd" interest) are those which appeal to the common elements in human nature—"The Religion of the Plain Man." But crowds must not be treated as if they were Catholic—they are "heterogeneous" in religion, as in other matters also. The method of handling largely governs the capacity of absorption of the crowd. (A really competent speaker can even give them philosophy.) Generally speaking the subjects that appeal best may be classified as: (a) Those that appeal to the individual personality—"massive"
subjects that influence the whole man. 5. How much of a subject can the crowd absorb? The fatal error is trying to give too much. Indigestion is a mental, as well as a physical fact. Wise breaks, humor, variety, topicalness, on the part of the speaker all increase the capacity of the crowd. A great weight of suggestion must be behind all our work. We must aim at causing future thought in our audience, as well as an immediate effect. 6. Finally, summing up all, Be interesting. 4. Questions And Interjections Literature: "Questions" section in "Advice for Intending Speakers." Handbook, Part III. 1. This is almost the most important part of our work and certainly the most difficult for beginners. The only safe foundation for answering questions is to have in our own minds a big constructive picture of the Church to which we refer all separate points of doctrine, and in which all details (with which questions are mostly concerned) fall into their proper place. We must not allow ourselves to be dragged into wrangling on minor points, chopping texts, etc. Remember irrelevancies in a lecture produce irrelevant questions. 2. Try to keep questions for the end of your lecture deal with them briefly, sympathetically, fairly. Always make sure you understand the question. Draw it out more clearly by cross-questioning. State your opponent's position better than he could. When ignorant confess it and ask him to come next week for the answer. But with a professional heckler see to it that the crowd first realize his ignorance (always colossal). This can be done with perfect politeness, usually by cross-questioning—which is also most useful in disentangling involved and incoherent questions. Practice this. 3. Note especially that questions tend to answer one another, as all non-Catholic creeds err by exaggeration of one truth and defect in another. Make use of this central position of the Church. She is the universal religion. 4. Never forget the "silent listener." If tempted to be short, impatient, discouraged with hecklers, look at him, think of him, pray for him. 5. On Forestalling Objections In The Course Of Your Speech Objections to any doctrine of the Church generally arise: —1. From Protestant misconceptions of that doctrine. 1. You learn by experience the chief misconceptions and should always deal with them in your lecture, showing (showing, be it understood, not laboriously proving) e.g. that infallibility means neither inability to sin nor inspiration; that Catholics do not pay to get their sins forgiven, etc. Quote the objectors' favorite texts and show how they apply to Catholic belief. 2. Remember in treating any doctrine to what parts of the living whole it belongs, e.g. relate Baptism and Confession to each other and to the Supernatural Life, the Mass to Calvary, Indulgences to the Communion of Saints and to Purgatory, etc. 3. When a doctrine is difficult do not deny this fact. Postulate the need of mystery in religion, for God is infinite and we are finite. Show that by our reason we may discover the Church, God's teacher upon earth, by our reason attain an ever-deepening knowledge of truth and of God, but that where Revelation goes beyond the power of reason it is reasonable to submit to God and to His Church. Shirk no difficulties in preparing your lecture, cut deeper than the difficulties. It will go home and moreover will save you from being floored by the questions. 6. Chairmanship 1. Introductory (a) Qualifications. A chairman must be able to handle (i) crowds, (ii) speakers, (iii) questions. A good chairman answers the problem of how to run a meeting for the benefit both of crowd and speakers. There is danger of losing balance in one direction or the other thinking exclusively of the crowd or exclusively of the speakers. When in doubt try to apply the rule of maximum all-round good. Above all, chair light-heartedly. (b) Importance. A meeting cannot fail if well chaired. The chairman must manage the time, know whom to put up and when, again when to intervene when to speak himself, when to efface himself: the golden rule being to be as little in evidence as possible. If the crowds do not realize who is chairman all the better. 2. The Other Speakers (a) Do not have too many or too few. If the latter, do extra yourself. See that all speakers told to speak, in spite of: —(i) Traveling stars who stroll along. (b) Have a rough time-table in your head, though it may have to be altered. Know your speakers well enough to know who had better open. Do not always leave this unpleasant job to a junior, especially the same junior. (c) Make them give a lecture and help them to choose what on. See they go through with it even if the crowd diminish; but if the crowd is in danger of disappearing let them take questions. In general advise them when to take questions; sometimes they can break the lecture and get back to it. (d) Listen with all your ears during question time. Identify yourself with the crowd. If mistakes are being made you can either: —(i) Get the speaker down at once, or In any case do not display your feelings to the crowd or to the other speakers. (e) Judge when to get your speakers down, and see that they come down, not before and not after. Throughout the meeting be thinking of your double duty all the time. 3. Your Own Speaking (a) Judge the best time: perhaps no set lecture, but just getting up between the other speakers to amplify or straighten out. (b) If you lecture do your best to be a model to juniors. Always prepare a Lecture. (c) In fairness to juniors and for the good of the crowd keep questions on your subject. If the crowd stay there is no need to take questions. (d) It may be necessary, for the sake of both juniors and crowd, to handle a heckler severely and teach him to behave. Here be very careful to remember double duty (to crowd and to other speakers). 4. Criticism Whether praise or blame, this must be given to speakers, or they get wrongly elated or depressed. (a) Praise. (b) Censure. This is not really difficult, as nearly all speakers are
prepared for it; it is often made to seem so by the bad manner of the chairman.
Do not be grandmotherly or nagging. 7. Class-Taking 1. Object To do as much for the class as can be done by one for another: give them what the pitches have given us. We must short-circuit considerably, show them what is useful and what must be avoided. Remember they cannot read much, but they must be forced to think. 2. General Method (a) Give the class an outline and encourage them to go through it next day,
trying to reconstruct your lecture. 3. More In Detail This means: N.B.—There can be no success in your lecturing unless you have plenty of life in it: your class are tired after their day's work, and your manner and method must grip them and galvanize them. 4. Questions To Class Mostly from the hecklers' point of view: common sense is vital here and little more is needed: a matter of care: preparation of questions to be asked should be as careful as for the lecture: it is our chance to see if the class is thinking: we must (a) catch them out, (b) teach them: but remember the former is easier and the latter more important. (a) Preparation: Selection should be done carefully: better to do one question well than find a number of posers: the ideal is three or four. Prepare the answers. (b) Nature: Either true crowd questions or true theological questions—this only to see that they really know their subject well enough: but avoid questions that no crowd would ask, and that do not really help them to an understanding of the subject. (c) Method: 5. Questions From The Class (a) Answer yourself or choose another member of the class to answer. 6. Short Speeches On The Subject (a) Say that they must speak for two minutes: but the time may be lengthened
or shortened as necessary. 8. Practice Night On this occasion there is no lecture proper to the class; the idea being to afford young speakers the opportunity of giving their speech in public a great many times before their test. A speaker may at his wish speak (up to ten minutes) and take questions, or take questions only. 1. Speeches (a) The chairman must make notes. 2. Questions (a) All present may heckle, and the class must be as much like an outdoor
meeting as possible. 3. Criticism (a) Public: Must be given without fear: common faults—hugging the platform, gesturing with the feet, not standing up, whispering, not repeating the question, answer too long or too short, striking at red herrings, talking to nobody in particular (i.e. "reciting"), and a tribe of fallacious arguments. (b) Private: Advise them about: 4. Tell Them When They Are Ready For Their Test 9. Thoughts For Senior Speakers 1. Their Special Difficulties (a) Increase of responsibilities: chairmanship, squad leading, office-holding—all take up time and moreover frequently coincide with the increase of work in their professions: thus inclined to slack on preparing lectures: a tendency to lengthen question time on the platform, and to trust to memory or luck with old lectures. (b) Far greater realization of the difficulties in attacking fresh subjects. This is as it should be, for the senior ought to have a definitely higher standard than the junior. (c) Often a general sense of staleness—on the stuff he has learnt, on listening to juniors out of doors, on coming to classes year after year. The simpler subjects seem stale, the more advanced ones too stiff. A tendency arises to read or listen in the class sleepfully or even to play the fool! A good test of this is whether a speaker continues to take notes in class. (d) our crowds make another difficulty for the senior: We shall better see the method of meeting these difficulties if we look at: 2. The Aim For Senior Speakers (a) Questions must not be neglected. They must be able to answer: (b) It is on the seniors that the responsibility rests of raising the level of Guild knowledge and power to meet the rising level of crowd information. And it is to be remembered that the very fact that we are educating our crowds to a higher level is itself most cheering. (c) Has the aim then for seniors got to be to tackle tremendously profound
subjects, in order to give the crowd something new which juniors cannot give?
They must of course get a deeper and fuller knowledge of their religion,
including much more advanced theology and even philosophy, but for the most part
their aim should be in their lecturing: More in detail what does this mean? (d) We shall always have to give to our crowds those things which are our
lives as Christians and as Catholics, because The aim then of the Senior Speaker is to teach Christianity and to do it as well as possible. 3. Methods Much more than the junior the senior is responsible for his own advancement or backsliding. Our work is always either improving or going back it never remains stationary, and the one fatal thing is to look upon one's training as finished. Senior speakers need: (a) Class work. Very few can do nearly as much for themselves by solitary
reading as they can in class. The questions are a much needed test of the
reality of their knowledge. Senior class work must cover: (b) Personal work outside class: 4. Some Practical Questions The senior can test how things are going by asking a few of these: (a) Quality or merely quantity—however often I am speaking do I prepare at least one lecture a week with real care? If this is done it will gain by repetition at different meetings: if not, poor and bad speaking must follow. (b) How about motive? This is generally high when we join the Guild, but one
tends to let it slip. The tests of it are: Course I For Junior Speakers PART I —1. The Church founded by Christ a Visible Body 1. The Visible Church Literature: (All books and pamphlets referred to in these Outlines will be found more fully described in the Bibliography) Tixeront: Apologetical Studies (most important) Further Reading: Finlay: Church of Christ. As this outline may be found too long for one lesson and not long enough for two, it is possible to make two lectures as follows: Lecture A. Lecture B. 1. Meaning The idea of a visible church is not meant to exclude spirituality and place stress only on the organization: but given spiritual unity, then a visible organization follows as its embodiment and safeguard. A common opinion, though necessary, is not sufficient: Shakespeare lovers are not a visible body: the Shakespeare Society is. The two further things necessary are: (a) A central authority. Catholicism has these things and boasts of them: Protestantism has not and boasts of their absence, insisting that a common opinion (and this of the vaguest sort) is sufficient to constitute a church. The question is, did Christ simply sow ideas, or did He also establish a society to guard and spread them? 2. Which Did Christ Establish? It is not here a question of what Christ could do, but of what he did do. Starting from the present day and working back through history, we find that while both ideas exist now, the "invisible church" idea is new, while the "visible body" idea goes right back to the time of Christ. We may select various points of history at random. (a) The present day: both ideas working. (b) Sixteenth century: Catholic idea in possession. The "invisible church" idea arising. Reformers did not begin with this idea, but were driven to it by facts. Before the sixteenth century it was not in existence. (c) Fifth century: Council of Chalcedon 451 (the central authority): Council of Ephesus 431 (officers with defined functions): both councils recognized that the Church must be one even in details of doctrine. An "invisible society" was unheard of. To those who say Christianity had already become corrupt we point out: (d) Sub-apostolic times: (e) Scripture: Still working backwards. St. Paul: Epistles to Titus and Timothy: 1 Timothy iii 5 and 15, iv. 14; Titus i. 5, iii. 10, etc. Epistles of Captivity: comparison with family, people, building: even the Body of Christ. Eph. iv. 11-13 Epistles to the Churches: "The rest I will set in order." 1 Cor. xi. 34; Gal. i. 9. Acts: We see a body in which the Apostles are chief: they appoint deacons: ordain by the imposition of hands. Acts viii. 17-19. Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, Acts xiii. They appoint others: episkopoi to rule the church of God: St. Peter in charge, Acts xv, etc. They teach one doctrine. 3. Our Lord's Foundation (a) Demarcation of function: Mark iv. 11. Note particularly the similes—Body, Kingdom, Sheepfold, Net, City. The "Invisible Church" idea was unknown to the Apostles, unmentioned by Christ. 4. Necessity (a) Protestants talk of spiritual unity as against external: in fact (b) The Church is in the world to work (e.g. to save souls, to convert heathen, etc.). A rabble cannot perform any work: for this an organization is needed. (c) To talk of "the Church of all true believers" as against Catholicism is merely loose thinking. Christ established a CHURCH OF ALL TRUE TEACHERS: and if you find that, the other follows. (d) The value of the visible society to the individual. Before Christ there were good pagans, but they were isolated and fell by the way. The Catholic feels himself one of a great and victorious army. Questions (And Objections): (1) If Visibility is an outstanding feature of the Church, why is the Church
so difficult to find among all the conflicting sects? and how is it that so few
find the Church? 2. The Church A Supernatural Fact Literature: Knox: Beginning and End of Man. (C.T.S.) See also lecture on "The Church the Mystical Body of Christ," The
Church is a fact, and is supernatural in: Introductory The Church, the link between God and man, is not: Structure The Church was built by God: this can be proved by: Function God and man are not two ends of the same stick: they are essentially
different; and if God builds a Church it will of necessity be supernatural: Thus when the materialist clamors what has the Church done for men? She naturally answers Got them to Heaven "—for that is her purpose; She is thus supernatural in her object (to save men's souls) and in the means by which she secures that object (sacraments, infallible teaching, etc.) Opposition (a) The materialist denies existence of supernatural and accuses Church of
wasting a great opportunity. (b) Other Churches may say that she is a supernatural fact, but not the only
one; but: (c) The superior onlooker talks of Buddha, Christ, Mahomet, ignores essential uniqueness of Catholicism; she is exercising an unparalleled influence on men's lives and men's souls, and by her men are shaping their lives in a unique way; she differs from all these others in her claims and in her obvious results. Questions: (1) What is the use of claiming to save us in the next world if you cannot
save us from disease and misery here? 3. Church And Bible Literature: Catholics and the Bible. (C.T.S.) Further Reading: Graham: Where we got the Bible. This literature is also for Lectures 4, 5 and 6. 1. The Church Loves The Bible (a) Because the whole of it is God's inspired word—a gift God wished men to have: a gift, moreover, in the giving of which God most wonderfully used human beings. (b) Because of what it contains—a record of the relations between God and mankind, which makes clear what would otherwise be darkness: —The Old Testament shows us how man came to need a Savior, and how God
prepared the world for that Savior's coming. (c) More particularly because of the intimate picture it gives us of Christ, drawn by those who knew Him and loved Him best. We scarcely know anything of Christ's life on earth beyond what the Bible tells us. 2. The Church Has Shown Her Love (a) By compiling it: The New Testament was not written as one book (see Lecture 4), but by many men in many parts of the world. In addition there were scores of books written purporting to give accounts of Christ's life and miracles: the Church sought out the inspired books from the rest, and gave us the List of Inspired Books (accepted by Protestants completely, as regards the New Testament, almost completely as regards the Old.) (b) By preserving it: Papyrus was a material of no lasting qualities, and unless the writings had been constantly copied and re-copied they must have perished; further, the Church for centuries lived a hunted life, and copies of the Bible were the first object of her persecutors: if the Church had not preserved these books, they would no longer exist. (c) By spreading abroad the knowledge of it: (d) By making it the basis of her worship (see Lecture 6). (e) By defending it: (f) By explaining it (see Lecture 4 in this section). (For Questions see end of Lecture 6.) 4. The Bible In The Church 1. There is danger in this lecture of giving an Impression of war between the
Bible and the Church: (a) To show that it is not a case of Church versus Bible, but of right and wrong use of the Bible (b) To avoid a purely destructive attitude: if we simply show the Bible is not the rule of faith, we have not taught them what it is. (c) To make clear just what place the Bible (i.e. for this lecture principally the New Testament) has in Catholicism. 2. History Of The New Testament Christ founded a teaching Church and made belief in it a command. See Lecture 1. (a) He nowhere told His Church to teach by writing. (b) The Church taught far and wide by word of mouth: men learnt of Christ and accepted Christ by the Church's oral teaching: for many years the Church was functioning without any new written teaching at all;* and proving thereby that written teaching, however useful it might be, was not of the very essence of the Church's constitution. (c) After a time some of the Apostles wrote down some of the teaching: now a letter and now a gospel: not on any particular system and without haste: note —(i) They only wrote some: four short lives of Christ, an account of a few
of the deeds of Peter and Paul, some dozen short letters and a vision of the
world to come (see John xxi. 25). See next lecture for the use of the O. T. by the Church. 3. Relation Of Things Written To Pre-Existing Living Teacher The writings did not in any case displace the teaching Church: they were read in It and treasured as a priceless record inspired by God of His human life and teachings. We may reduce the relation to four points: a) The writings needed explaining: (b) They needed supplementing: (c) They needed guaranteeing: men could not know they were inspired unless God's messenger said so. (d) They could not be contradicted: they were part of the Church's teaching, and inspired by the same Holy Ghost who guarded the Church. Thus the Church, for which they were written, used them, treasured them, explained them, and taught where they were silent. There could be no question of contradiction between written and spoken teaching. Scripture is one of the Church's activities. 4. Modern Views: Catholic And Protestant Protestant. The Bible alone. This is: Catholic: Reproduces exactly the usage of those for whom the Bible was written, and thus guarantees that we shall have not simply as much of the word of God as we can get out of the Bible, but: (a) The whole of God's word to man (including that which is in the Bible). 5. The Rule Of Faith Introduction A living voice, not an inarticulate and defenseless book, is the real need of men (defenseless, because when misinterpreted it can say nothing). Moreover, an infallible book needs an infallible interpreter, otherwise the individual is no further advanced. 1. The great visible teaching Society, the Catholic Church, has in her possession certain writings (the Bible is a library rather than a book), which she has solemnly recognized as the inspired word of God. These writings committed to her charge she gives to her children and claims also to interpret. Historically: (a) Looking back to the beginnings of Protestantism we find Luther, Calvin, etc., did not make a new Protestant Bible, but merely took most of the Catholic Bible, rejecting parts and putting their own interpretation on what they retained. So also Wyclif, Tyndale, etc. (b) Going still further back we find always the teaching Church, center at Rome, holding these same books and interpreting them. It is from the Church the world receives them. "I would not believe the gospel," says St. Augustine, "unless the Catholic Church moved me thereto. (c) Earlier yet, the infant Church was in action as a teaching body, and many martyrs had died for the Faith before the New Testament was written. The teachers of this Church quoted and claimed the right, as their Master had claimed it, to interpret the Old Testament—the sacred Books of Judaism—in the light of His life and the teaching committed to them by Him. ("Ye search the Scriptures...the same are they which give testimony of Me." "Thinkest thou understandest?—How can I unless some man show me?" "Expounding the Scriptures, etc." "Christ is the fulfilling of the law.") It is these men, surrounding Peter their head on earth, who by degrees, as they taught, wrote also, and the books they wrote belonged to them and their successors. The Rule of Faith is, then, a living Church teaching with Authority, and to that Church is committed the Sacred Books. 2. The Protestant Rule of Faith is the Bible privately interpreted. The drawbacks to this are: The principles of authority and dogmatic teaching are essential to Christianity; the sole alternatives in Religion today are Catholicism or chaos. (For Questions, see end of Lecture 6) 6. Use Of Bible Reading In The Church 1. The Church desires that her children should make the best and fullest use of the treasure committed to her. All through history she has tried to ensure this. (a) She preserved, collected and authenticated the sacred volume. (Carthage, Hippo, Trent.) (b) She saw to its being copied and translated (early Latin and Syriac Versions, copies in monasteries, the life-work of monks and nuns, translations for foreign missions into modern languages.) Medieval sermons, mystery plays, pictures, statues. The Synod of Arras said, "The vulgar contemplated in the lineaments of painting what they, having never learnt to read, could not discern in writing." (c) She takes care to prevent bad translations and rightly to interpret the good ones so as to give her children, not the letter merely, but the meaning. 2. To make this effective for her children the Church: (a) Urges their making constant use of the Scriptures for meditation and guidance. (Quote Saints from pp. 4 and 5 of "The Catholic Church and the Bible," also Pius VI, VII, Leo XIII, urging frequent Bible reading.) (b) Obliges her Priests to read the Psalms, etc., for at least one hour daily in the Divine Office. (c) Shows with what great reverence the Gospels especially should be treated by making the people stand while they are read at Mass, making the sign of the Cross, etc. (d) Makes the whole of the Bible the staple of her liturgical services, one of which at least all Catholics are bound to attend. It is our own fault if we don't know the Bible. 3. The Church, especially by this liturgical use, teaches us how to read the Bible; (a) As something living still in the life of the Church. Questions: (On Lecture 3-6) (1) All our information about Christ must come from the Bible, so we don't
need a Church. 7. Marks Of The Church 1. Introduction With hundreds of churches claiming to be the true Church founded by Christ, it is necessary that a church should be ready to show its credentials, otherwise no one can know whether it is the true Church or not. The credentials which the Catholic Church has to show are her four marks. 2. Definition A mark must be: (a) An outwardly visible sign: otherwise it is of no value as a means of
identification; it does not require proof, but is evident to all. Thus: Infallibility, though essential, is not outwardly visible; and miracles, though outwardly visible, are not essential. But Unity, Catholicity, Holiness, Apostolicity, are all things which can be seen by any man who will look, and are necessary to the constitution of the true Church. 3. Methods Of Treatment A.—Wrong Methods: Some of the crowd would undoubtedly question the first statement contained in it: how do you know what kind of Church God would have founded? The statement goes perilously close to saying what kind of Church we should have founded, had we been God: and everyone in the crowd has strong views of his own on the kind of Church God would have founded. But even granting the first statement, the rest of the argument is not logical: —(i) It begins with "if," and the "if" remains to the
end; So that the most the argument would prove is: If God founded a Church, and if it still exists, and if no other Church has similar marks, then the Catholic Church is the Church of God. (b) "Our Lord said that His Church should be one, holy, Catholic, Apostolic. The Catholic Church is so, therefore it is His Church." This is better than the first method; but (b) The argument in any case would only appeal to a Christian. Since the Church's aim is to convert all men, her credentials must be able to appeal to all men. B.—The Right Method: Take the Church as a fact, and her marks as facts, known to all, though not perhaps fully realized; and proceed to show what these undeniably existent characteristics prove. —(i) Describe these marks as graphically as possible; make the crowd see the Unity and Catholicity of the Church; it is not a question of words or proofs, but simply of drawing a picture that the crowd can see. Treat holiness similarly: you cannot inspect men's consciences, but there are certain outwardly visible things—the holy doctrine, the means of holiness, the saints. —(ii) In Apostolicity make use of the historically unbroken descent and use the central position of Rome as a peg: stress the continuous missionary work of the Church and the unchanging position of authority. If you have described these adequately there will never be any argument as to the EXISTENCE of the marks. The next thing is to show what that existence proves. 4. What They Prove (a) Unity and Catholicity: The key to this section is the word "miracle." The marks are miracles, and therefore show the hand of God. None of these things can be accounted for by human means; e.g. unity throughout the world and throughout the centuries is a dream that has never even approached accomplishment elsewhere; make the crowd see how marvelous it is; superhuman, a miracle, and therefore of God. (b) Apostolicity: Shows that the living Catholic Church is one with the Church of the Apostles: unlike the other marks, this will appeal mainly to Christians. (c) Holiness: What can be seen outwardly shows that the Church has the source of all holiness within her. Thus these four undeniable and undenied marks prove the divine foundation of the Church. 5. Conclusion It will be noted that no use has been made of New Testament texts. (a) Because these marks existed before the New Testament and cannot, therefore, depend upon it; nor can they for the same reason logically be proved from it—but only verified; and (b) because the marks are sufficient in themselves to prove the Church even to an atheist. It may be useful with Bible Christians to finish with texts (in no circumstances begin: as has been shown, it only causes wrangling about the meaning of each text, which is obviated if the fact of the marks has been first hammered in) to show that Christ intended the marks. But the essence of a mark is that it shall be visible, and to the inquiring Bible Christian, Mahommedan and Atheist alike, the marks of the Church stand out in themselves a guarantee of all that their possessor teaches. (This last must be stressed.) Questions: (1) Why four marks? 8. Unity And Catholicity (A) Literature: Stewart: Letters to an Anglican Nun. (C.T.S.) 1. Introduction (a) Take them together. Unity by itself and Catholicity by itself would not be strong enough. (b) Do not begin with texts to show Christ's intention: nor with your own view of what Christ's Church should look like: show that the Church is one and catholic; that her unity and catholicity are so utterly beyond human power as to be miraculous: and that thus they show that God is with the Church. 2. Describe The Marks Unity. Show how much it covers: faith, worship and government—but do not give the impression of slavery. Catholicity. All times: all nations: and even more important, all types of men. The Church is Catholic, not only horizontally, but vertically: crossing-sweepers and sword-swallowers, poets, kings and slaves; there is no type of mind or way of life that cannot find a home in the Church. Give examples of times, places and types. The point here is to be graphic: describe these marks so clearly that those outsiders who think their church has unity (in fundamentals) or Catholicity, will realize the poverty of the imitation. 3. What They Prove Stress now their amazingness. They are not only unique (like e.g. Paris fashions), but beyond human power. Not explainable by chance, nor by themselves (they could not have just drifted so). Examine the fallacy that explains Catholic Unity by pointing out that all Catholics accept the Pope. Unity is not easily achievable even in a small way; men are sundered by education, heredity, physique, circumstances. A strong agreement of two on a few points for a short while would be notable: here we have 300,000,000 agreeing for 2,000 years, on— Faith All three of which are among the things on which men agree with most difficulty. Show that Catholics can quarrel on other points. Catholicity makes the unity even more marvelous, it shows that the Church somehow reaches the common substance of mankind. Only God could do it. 4. Summarizing Challenge the crowd for any explanation of these stupendous facts: none will be forthcoming, and the conclusion must be insisted on, that nothing short of the power of God will account for them. The Catholic Church, therefore, is God's Church. Texts are not necessary in this lecture, but should be known. The most important are: John xvii. Eph. iv, Col. iii. 11, and above all Matt. xxviii. 19-20, whose threefold all is the best definition of Catholicity. Unity And Catholicity (B) 1. Unity In The Natural Order The study of mankind shows man's desire for unity, shows also its impossibility in the natural order. (a) History might almost be called a study of difference: —(i) Wars between nations, tribes, individuals. (b) If we confine our view to the world of today we see: —(i) Abroad: difficulty of making contact with men of other nations from
difference of language, local customs, points of view. (c) Men cannot agree. They aim at unity in: —(i) Faith or philosophy. but they fail to achieve it. Why? Because, said a man in the crowd once when this subject was being discussed, "it's not in nature. Even if you take the seed of a plant and sow it in different countries it will grow up different." In the natural order ideas too are modified as they spread. 2. The Unity Of The Catholic Church (a) Has passed through the changes of history Herself unchanged, remaining the same in every age, country, civilization. (b) Has succeeded in uniting hundreds of millions of people differing in: —(i) Race. (c) Has imposed one faith or philosophy, one ethic. (Notice how every age has its fashionable vice—dueling, divorce, birth-control, to which the Church will never give in.) (d) One worship universal and unchanging, the Mass; such oneness moreover in her faith that while all other literature becomes archaic (not merely in language but in substance) a Catholic can use the devotions and philosophy of a past age as fully as today's. St. Thomas Aquinas, the Imitation, the Confessions of St. Augustine can never be out of date. (e) One government—the Papacy and the Episcopate have lasted for 2,000 years, governing this mixed mass of races, etc. 3. The Explanation Both (1) and (2) must be thought out and made vivid by many examples, otherwise the lecture is useless. But if it is properly done it is agreed that no human explanation is possible. We must then find a superhuman one. See John xvii, Eph iv, Col. iii. 11, etc. (See previous outline.) 4. Conclusion Is this unity a wooden and merely external thing? This is often assumed by
questioners. We must show clearly: (b) The unity that issues in such varied expression could not be merely external. Show that the very strength of the spiritual unity in the Church would create an external unity as its embodiment. The Church works from within outwardly. Questions: (1) There are many sorts of Catholics—Anglo, Greek, Russian and Roman. 9. Apostolicity As A Mark (A) Literature: Are You a Bible Christian? (C.T.S.) Further Reading: Devas: Key to the World's Progress. Introduction The idea of a mark is that it shall be an essential characteristic, outwardly visible and sufficient to prove something else. Not all the characteristic "Apostolicity" is outwardly visible, therefore it is not all a mark (cf. an iceberg, part of which is above water and part below: that which is above proves the existence of that which is below). Take as much of the characteristic as is outwardly visible, and it is sufficient to prove that the Church is the same as the Church of the Apostles described in the Bible. (Take such of the Bible as is not matter of dispute.) 1. The Church is Apostolic in MISSION. (a) Teaching all nations: never ceasing to spread. 2. But it might be argued that though working in the field entrusted to the Apostles, this is a different sort of Church. Necessary, therefore, to show that the Church is Apostolic in CHARACTER and OUTLOOK. (a) Organization: laity, deacons, Apostles, Peter. 3. It might still be argued that though working in the same sphere with the same method, she is not giving the same teaching. Show that the Church is Apostolic in TEACHING. (a) Not doctrine by doctrine: this is not part of the mark because proof of
it is needed. 4. But it is not enough to show that the Church is giving out the same teaching, with the same method, in the same field. She might still be a usurper unless it can be shown that she was given by God authority to do all this. (A man cannot appoint himself a teacher of Christianity any more than he can appoint himself a judge or an M.P.; he has to be appointed by God. "How shall they preach unless they be sent?") Show that the Church is Apostolic in DESCENT. (a) She alone goes back to the time of the Apostles: working backward through
history we can put dates on all the other Christian bodies, only the Church goes
back, always the same, to Christ her Founder. Questions: (1) The Roman Catholic Church only started with the Roman Emperor
Constantine, not with the Apostles. 10. Holiness As A Mark Of The Church (A) Literature: Gildea: Catholic Church. (C.T.S.) Further Reading: Benson: Christ in the Church. See also Lectures on the Eucharist and the Moral System; and for attacks on the Church's Holiness, see Lectures on "Persecution," "Church a Supernatural Fact," "Marriage." 1. Introductory We are treating not Holiness simply, but Holiness as a mark, i.e. something that may be seen from without by any intelligent person. (Note, as with Apostolicity, the analogy of an iceberg: part invisible below the surface, but proved to exist by what can be seen.) This rules out a great deal that comes under the general head of Holiness, e.g. mysticism, moral advice and other matters which must be treated, if at all, under some other head. 2. Method We must not: Remembering that we are dealing primarily with the holiness, not of
Catholics, but of the Catholic Church, the method is to describe: 3. Holy Doctrine Not here a question of the truth of her doctrines (this would mean proving
and therefore is not part of the mark), but only of their morality. Show: 4. Means Of Holiness So much is this so that many have gone to the other by extreme and said her
doctrine is too holy—beyond human power. This would be so if the Church did
not help man: 5. Results But machinery might be useless and the final test is still "By their fruits...." (a) Bad Catholics: these are not the "fruits" of the Church, e.g.
as you judge a medicine by those who take it, not by those who pour it down the
sink, so the Church must be judged: "bad Catholics" having rejected
the teaching and scorned the means are not the "fruits." 6. Summary There is thus sufficient visible to show any honest outsider the true holiness of the Church, and it may then—and not before—be pointed out how naturally such holiness resides in a Church founded by Christ and how the Church fulfills in this as in all else—even down to the smallest details, all that He foretold. [For one who has the ability, it is possible to make a good line on the meaning of Holiness as distinct from the Mark of Holiness. Outside Catholicism, the world has wandered from the true meaning very badly. (1) Protestants early set up as a model the "philanthropist"—and as a natural consequence the next generation came to hate Holiness altogether. (2) The present non-Catholic dissociation of holiness from merriment is the result of the earlier dissociation of holiness from suffering. When asceticism went, joy went.] Holiness (B) General Line To Be Followed We here regard Holiness not strictly as a Mark (an external, objective sign, showing all men that the Church is the peculiar and unique work of God). Holiness is essentially an internal fact, although it has external manifestations, and non-Catholics must be shown this. 1. Ordinary Man For us ordinary people the same teaching and means of holiness are available as for the Saints, and so their lives will only show in an extraordinary and heroic degree factors that must be the staple of all our lives. What are these? These are the high ideals, exemplified by the Saints (see Newman (a)), the insistence upon the need of our active cooperation with God, of perseverance in grace of rising after falls—the help given by the Sacraments particularly the Eucharist, in right living. Then there is Penance (see Chapman), sufficient in itself to prove the Church Divine. Also her sermons in picture and stone, as well by the spoken word; the inculcation of prayer and mortification, intense meditation and insistence on the central facts of Christianity; her traditional methods of attaining holiness embodied in the constitutions of the Saints, the various devotions, the ascetical learning at our disposal. So that we can testify from our experience, that the Church is indeed Holy, whatever our own and our fellows' shortcomings may be. All good there is in Protestantism is either: This will require very careful handling; but can be put to very effective use, particularly when coupled with a demonstration of the immorality of Lutheran anti-nomianism and Calvinistic predestination. 2. The Saints These are the heroes of Christianity, such as exist hardly, if at all, outside the Church. Now the ordinary man's notion of doing "good" is primarily giving away things; or doing things for nothing. Our Lord went about doing good. This appeals to the primary instinct of the average man, and it is best therefore to start off with the Saints of active Charity, and the Religious Orders founded by them. They loved and served mankind heroically because they first loved and served God heroically; their lives were first and foremost lives of prayer. Mankind has gained more from them than from all the philanthropists. Specialize on the lives of one or two of these Saints in recent times. From this point of view you may, if you are able, proceed to the great penitents, missionaries and leaders of active Christian thought, and then to the specially miraculous Saints and Contemplatives. The deduction to get your audience to draw is, that these men, being unmistakably the product of Catholicism, its teaching must be really holy, and, it must really provide the means of holiness. Finally, Catholic sanctity has nothing to do with sanctimoniousness. Objections. Get up carefully Newman (c) and the relevant "Question Box" Section. Questions: (1) Has the Roman Catholic Church a monopoly of holiness? 11. The Supremacy Of The Pope (A) Literature: Luke: Letters to a Bible Christian. (C.T.S.) Further Reading: Chapman: Gore, Catholic Claims (Chapters V-VII). 1. Introduction Distinguish between Infallibility (which means roughly that the Pope must be believed when he teaches) and Supremacy* (which means roughly that the Pope must be obeyed when he commands). Broadly the Pope has a right to obedience in all matters of religion and in those adjacent matters that closely affect it: he is not supreme, e.g. in politics. *For platform purposes it is necessary also to make another distinction.
Speakers are occasionally puzzled to hear an Anglican heckler admitting the
"Primacy" of the Pope, by which he means simply primacy of honor
carrying with it no powers of any kind. 2. Christ made Peter His Representative (a) During Christ's lifetime, the Christian body consisted of a visible head (Christ) subsidiary teachers (the apostles), and rank and file. Christ's headship was expressed by such terms as Rock, Keybearer, Teacher, Shepherd. (b) And these very titles of Rock, Keybearer, Teacher, Shepherd, are conferred by Our Lord on Peter: —(i) Rock, Keybearer (Matt. xvi. 18). so that when Christ left the world, the outline of the organism is preserved: the visible head (Peter, representing Christ), the subsidiary teachers, the rank and file. (c) That outline still exists in the Catholic Church. 3. Peter exercised this Supremacy (a) Acts i. 15-22—Appointment of Judas' successor. 4. This Supremacy was intended to continue (a) Reason shows that if in a Church of a few people close to Christ's |