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 The parable is applied to a world that has withdrawn from Christ and squandered its inheritance of salvation and culture on the purely material.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.