Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief

Rating:
Summary: Irresistible for Anglophiles
Review: This book is a fascinating and well-written exploration of the 20th-century Christian literary and artistic revival in England that arose in response to the prevailing secularism of the age. It focuses on Christian converts, mostly Catholic and some Anglican, among them Oscar Wilde, G.K. Chesterton (who seems to have influenced almost all of the others), Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, Edith Sitwell, Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, E.F. Schumacher, Alec Guinness and Malcolm Muggeridge. There's also the occasional cradle Catholic (Hilaire Belloc), childhood convert (J.R.R. Tolkien) or cradle Anglican (Dorothy L. Sayers), along with non-Christians such as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, all of whose lives intersected with and influenced those of the converts. Joseph Pearce's writing is clear, pleasant and literate, making this an irresistible read for Catholics and other Christians, especially those who are also Anglophiles. If you enjoy this book, you might also want to read Mr. Pearce's biographies of Tolkien and Chesterton.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling Stories of Faith
Review: Throughout the twentieth century, many of England's key literary figures converted to Catholicism and the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England. This book neatly traces their spiritual journeys, and how they profoundly influenced each other along the way. Pearce devotes attention to such giants as Hilaire Belloc (a rare literary cradle Catholic), Chesterton, Ronald Knox, T. S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Edith Sitwell, C. S. Lewis and Alec Guinness, and also covers many of the lesser known and under appreciated poets, writers, and actors of the time. For some, the decision to convert took a few years, for others nearly a lifetime. Some came from positions of hardened atheism or agnosticism, others were disaffected or perfunctory Protestants. Some came to the Church as a result of suffering or loss, others from a cool and intellectual study of theology and history. Pearce quotes heavily in his book-perhaps too heavily-but there are several quotations from these brilliant people that made me think "Aha!" or "That's what I've been trying to say!" In particular, I was amazed to see the far-reaching influence of Belloc and Chesterton, two really magnificent thinkers who are hardly known today. All in all, I felt completely immersed in the thought and feeling of the time, so greatly influenced by fanatical political systems, gross inequality of wealth, two world wars and atomic bombs. The converts were reacting to a fatalistic determinism and materialism that seemed to be stealing the soul of humanity, as expressed in such poems as Eliot's "The Waste Land" and "The Hollow Men". For many people of the time, there seemed to be a choice between communism and fascism, or between communism and capitalism. As Belloc and Chesterton saw early on, such things were false dichotomies. The way of Faith, the return to a culture built on Christian foundations, is another choice, and the only one that can work to the benefit of all men.