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Broga · 02-04-2012, 08:45 AM

I am able, with no difficulty, to understand how christians become atheists. Quite simply, reason and the facts are overwhelmingly against the christians. What has often puzzled me is how an intelligent person, perhaps even an atheist, is able to convert to Roman Catholicism. A book I am currently reading about Evelyn Waugh perhaps partly solves the puzzle. I have been assuming that in conversion the intellect must play a major part. Won't an intelligent man or woman need to be convinced by fact and reason? Could they take such a step without thinking through what they are assenting to?

And that is where I have been wrong. The way to conversion is to leap over fact and reason and, at least where the intelligent person is concerned, replace them with the help of priestly casuistry. Some kind of personal emotional trauma is the other part of the solution to the question of how they can convert. The example of Evelyn Waugh is instructive - well, at least for me. The rest of you may understand the process already.

Evelyn Waugh, born in 1903, was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 29th September, 1930. Shortly before, when writing Vile Bodies, he was asked if he was a Catholic. He said, "Not at all, I was as near an atheist as one could be." Why the conversion then? There seems little doubt that Waugh had been flirting with Roman Catholicism for some years. However, he was traumatised when his marriage collapsed and he discovered his wife had been having an affair. He was depressed, pessimistic about the generality of people and looking for some way of accepting the reality of humankind and his own life.

Enter Father Martin D'Arcy SJ whom Waugh describes as having "a blue chin, and fine slippery mind." Waugh and D'Arcy had many discussions and it seems that D'Arcy with his "slippery mind" provided the rationalisations Waugh was seeking. D'Arcy was pushing at an open door. Waugh was ready to accept the tenets of Catholicism without demur. As D'Arcy commented Waugh had "convinced himself of the truth of the Catholic faith."

It seems to me that Waugh chose the solace of Catholicism by ignoring or avoiding the facts of what he was accepting. He clearly realised what D'Arcy was contriving by the reference to the priest's "slippery mind." Waugh prefered the comforting fairy tale of Catholicism and I conjecture that he took good care to avoid any analysis of what was placed before him. Instead he had the myth, the ritual and the confessional to quiet his fears and offer an imaginary solution to his problems. Waugh's father called it his son's "perversion to Rome."

In response to my puzzlement of how intelligent people overcome the intellectual barriers to Catholicism the answer seems to be they do not. They avoid them.

02-04-2012, 08:45 AM	#1
Broga Obsessed Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 1,422	Converting to Roman Catholicism. I am able, with no difficulty, to understand how christians become atheists. Quite simply, reason and the facts are overwhelmingly against the christians. What has often puzzled me is how an intelligent person, perhaps even an atheist, is able to convert to Roman Catholicism. A book I am currently reading about Evelyn Waugh perhaps partly solves the puzzle. I have been assuming that in conversion the intellect must play a major part. Won't an intelligent man or woman need to be convinced by fact and reason? Could they take such a step without thinking through what they are assenting to? And that is where I have been wrong. The way to conversion is to leap over fact and reason and, at least where the intelligent person is concerned, replace them with the help of priestly casuistry. Some kind of personal emotional trauma is the other part of the solution to the question of how they can convert. The example of Evelyn Waugh is instructive - well, at least for me. The rest of you may understand the process already. Evelyn Waugh, born in 1903, was received into the Roman Catholic Church on 29th September, 1930. Shortly before, when writing Vile Bodies, he was asked if he was a Catholic. He said, "Not at all, I was as near an atheist as one could be." Why the conversion then? There seems little doubt that Waugh had been flirting with Roman Catholicism for some years. However, he was traumatised when his marriage collapsed and he discovered his wife had been having an affair. He was depressed, pessimistic about the generality of people and looking for some way of accepting the reality of humankind and his own life. Enter Father Martin D'Arcy SJ whom Waugh describes as having "a blue chin, and fine slippery mind." Waugh and D'Arcy had many discussions and it seems that D'Arcy with his "slippery mind" provided the rationalisations Waugh was seeking. D'Arcy was pushing at an open door. Waugh was ready to accept the tenets of Catholicism without demur. As D'Arcy commented Waugh had "convinced himself of the truth of the Catholic faith." It seems to me that Waugh chose the solace of Catholicism by ignoring or avoiding the facts of what he was accepting. He clearly realised what D'Arcy was contriving by the reference to the priest's "slippery mind." Waugh prefered the comforting fairy tale of Catholicism and I conjecture that he took good care to avoid any analysis of what was placed before him. Instead he had the myth, the ritual and the confessional to quiet his fears and offer an imaginary solution to his problems. Waugh's father called it his son's "perversion to Rome." In response to my puzzlement of how intelligent people overcome the intellectual barriers to Catholicism the answer seems to be they do not. They avoid them.