The Cross and The Crisis

**The Cross and the Crisis

Today the world stands at a crossroad. Two paths stretch out toward the future. One leads to moral and religious ruin: the other to the salvation of civilization and culture. Down one, men will walk in the comradeship of anti-Christ, up the other in the brotherhood of Christ. There is no middle course. As Fulton Sheen puts it, the choice is between "an organic spiritual unity and an organic technical unity, or between a philosophy of life which says that man is a potential child of God and a philosophy of life which says there is no God but Caesar...."

In these ten vigorous, thought-provoking discussions the choice is suggested with sane and convincing logic.

I. SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY

II. THE LAST BATTLE

III. THE PRIMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL

IV. MORE ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL

V. THE BREAD OF THE FATHER'S HOME

VI. THE AUTHORITY OF THE FATHER'S HOUSE

VII. THE SENSE OF SIN

VIII. THE CHURCH AND THE STATE

IX. SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

X. OUR OPPORTUNITY AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY

The problem of the salvation of civilization and culture is treated by an analogical treatment of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable is applied to a world that has withdrawn from Christ and squandered its inheritance of salvation and culture on the purely material. Salvation for the world, Fulton Sheen points out, will come only through its penitent return to its Father's house.

Fulton J. Sheen needs no introduction to the reading public. Author of many significant books, lecturer, radio speaker, holder of a long list of academic degrees, intimately associated with both the University of Louvain and the Catholic University of America, he is indeed one of our most distinguished contemporary men of letters. In **THE CROSS AND THE CRISIS, he makes yet another notable contribution to the enrichment of our intellectual life.

Auteur

Fulton John Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895. In high school, he won a three-year university scholarship, but he turned it down to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. He attended St. Viator College Seminary in Illinois and St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota. In 1919, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois. He earned a licentiate in sacred theology and a bachelor of canon law at the Catholic University of America and a doctorate at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Sheen received numerous teaching offers but declined them in obedience to his bishop and became an assistant pastor in a rural parish. Having thus tested his obedience, the bishop later permitted him to teach at the Catholic University of America and at St. Edmund's College in Ware, England, where he met G.K. Chesterton, whose weekly BBC radio broadcast inspired Sheen's later NBC broadcast, The Catholic Hour (1930-1952). In 1952, Sheen began appearing on ABC in his own series, Life Is Worth Living. Despite being given a time slot that forced him to compete with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, the dynamic Sheen enjoyed enormous success and in 1954 reach tens of millions of viewers, non-Catholics as well as Catholics. When asked by Pope Pius XII how many converts he had made, Sheen responded, "Your Holiness, I have never counted them. I am always afraid if I did count them, I might think I made them, instead of the Lord." Sheen gave annual Good Friday homilies at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, led numerous retreats for priests and religious, and preached at summer conferences in England. "If you want people to stay as they are," he said, "tell them what they want to hear. If you want to improve them, tell them what they should know." This he did, not only in his preaching but also in the more than ninety books he wrote. His book, Peace of Soul was sixth on the New York Times best-seller list. Sheen served as auxiliary bishop of New York (1951-1966) and as bishop of Rochester (1966-1969). The good Lord called Fulton Sheen home in 1979. His television broadcasts, now on tape, and his books continue his earthly work of winning souls for Christ. Sheen's cause for canonization was opened in 2002, and in 2012 Pope Benedict XVI declared him "Venerable."

Texte du rabat

The Cross and the Crisis Today the world stands at a crossroad. Two paths stretch out toward the future. One leads to moral and religious ruin: the other to the salvation of civilization and culture. Down one, men will walk in the comradeship of anti-Christ, up the other in the brotherhood of Christ. There is no middle course. As Fulton Sheen puts it, the choice is between "an organic spiritual unity and an organic technical unity, or between a philosophy of life which says that man is a potential child of God and a philosophy of life which says there is no God but Caesar…." In these ten vigorous, thought-provoking discussions the choice is suggested with sane and convincing logic. I. SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY II. THE LAST BATTLE III. THE PRIMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL IV. MORE ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL V. THE BREAD OF THE FATHER'S HOME VI. THE AUTHORITY OF THE FATHER'S HOUSE VII. THE SENSE OF SIN VIII. THE CHURCH AND THE STATE IX. SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD X. OUR OPPORTUNITY AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY The problem of the salvation of civilization and culture is treated by an analogical treatment of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The parable is applied to a world that has withdrawn from Christ and squandered its inheritance of salvation and culture on the purely material. Salvation for the world, Fulton Sheen points out, will come only through its penitent return to its Father's house. Fulton J. Sheen needs no introduction to the reading public. Author of many significant books, lecturer, radio speaker, holder of a long list of academic degrees, intimately associated with both the University of Louvain and the Catholic University of America, he is indeed one of our most distinguished contemporary men of letters. In THE CROSS AND THE CRISIS, he makes yet another notable contribution to the enrichment of our intellectual life.