THE CRISIS of CIVILIZATION

THE CRISIS of CIVILIZATION

Ever since the disaster of the Protestant Reformation our civilization has been falling into ever deepening crisis, the solution to which Hilarie Belloc says. “Does not permit of indefinite delay.

Catholicism built the Western World from Roman times through the dark ages to the high middle ages but the false social philosophy of the Protestant Reformation, based on Calvinism, has been causing an ever deepening breakdown of our Catholic built Western World.

Belloc shows Reformation’s evil results in the economic sphere through the dissolving of Catholic restraints on usury and unbridled competition.

He claims that “Calvin opened the door to the domination of the mind by money” 

Thus the Protestant Reformation has led to our present disastrous economic situation, where there are on the one hand, a few wealthy men and on the other a multitude of ‘wage slaves’ who have neither a secure ‘status’ nor a place in society, nor any property, except for their labour, upon which to rely on for their daily bread.

Furthermore he shows how this situation contrasts sharply with that of the middle ages, where security of status, with a sufficiency of material goods, was the rule, which thus supported the catholic goal of frugal comfort and family security in this life and salvation in the next, as opposed to the Calvinist ideal of acquiring material wealth, even at the expense of the welfare of one’s neighbor.

He concludes by stating that only a return to Catholicism will remedy the crisis of our crumbling world.

He sees a threefold remedy of reform.

1. The better distribution of property
2. . The public control of monopolies
3. The reestablishment of those principles and that organization which underlay the conception of the guild.

But institutions do not arise of themselves nor are they preserved by mere verbal regulations. They comes says Belloc, from the spirit of which they are the product, namely in this case Catholicism.

A return to the faith, therefore on the part of both individuals and society is the only answer to our present crisis.

He goes on to say “We must begin by aiming at the conversion of Society failing which no scheme of stable economic freedom will stand. We came remember out of Slavery, our society (The old Roman World) was once wholly based on slavery and to slavery it is returning.

As a defense against such a decline, there is none but the counter-action of Catholicism

Attacks on our Civilization

We have had examples of heresy, working from without and forming a new world in that fashion, of which Islam is the great example.

We have had examples of heresy at work attacking the root of the Faith, the Incarnation, and specializing upon that of which Arianism was the great example.

We have had the growth of the foreign body from within, the Albigenses, and all their Manichean kindred before and after them.

We have had the attack on the personality that is the unity, of the Church which is Protestantism.

And we now behold, even as Protestantism is dying, the rise and growth of yet another form of conflict the proposal to treat all transcendental affirmation as illusion.

The schisms are as much attacks upon the life of the Catholic Church as are the heresies; the greatest schism of all, the Greek or Orthodox, which has produced the Greek or Orthodox communion, is manifestly a disruption of our strength.

Hilarie Belloc says our 2 choices are a return to Catholicism or chaos!

Hilarie Belloc says our 2 choices are a return to Catholicism or chaos!

Ever since the disaster of the Protestant Reformation, Western civilization (which was formed by the Catholic Faith) has been coming apart--since Calvinism opened the door to usury, unbridled competition, the domination of the mind by money, and ultimately the return of slavery.

Hilarie Belloc says our 2 choices are a return to Catholicism or chaos!

Our choice, says Belloc, is Catholicism or chaos, and "the crisis ... does not permit of indefinite delay." He shows in this work that ever since the disaster of the Protestant Reformation, our civilization has been coming apart. Catholicism built the Western World - from Roman times through the Dark Ages to the High Middle Ages - but the false doctrine and social philosophy of Protestantism, based on Calvin, is causing a steady and continuing breakdown of that world. Belloc shows the Reformation's evil results in the economic sphere, through the dissolving of Catholic restraints on usury and on unbridled competition. He states that "Calvin opened the door to the domination of the mind by money." 

Belloc concludes that the return of Catholicism is the only remedy for our crumbling world, because our basic principles of civilization are Catholic in origin and only by being energized and guided by the Faith will they - and our civilization - continue to be what they are and continue to help poor, fallen mankind in this world. Belloc maintains that we are drifting back towards slavery and only by re-embracing Catholicism will disaster be averted.