Ronald Arbuthnott Knox

Monsignor Ronald Knox was a scholar, preacher, essayist, poet and mystery writer who, throughout his long career, always defended the common man against the elite's latest fads and vices. This book provides quotes from the variety of Knox's numerous works to give readers a sense of that Orthodox tradition. Also included is a bibliography of Knox's works, indices of sources and topics, and an introduction to the life and works of Knox by Monsignor Eugene Clark.

"The Scoop" first appeared as a serial in the Listener in 1931. "Behind the Screen" first appeared as a serial in the Listener in 1930. The two serials were first published in book form in the UK by Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1983 and in the US by Harper & Row in 1984. It was another foggy night in London when the members of the world-renowned Detection Club gathered to repeat the success of their jointly authored book, The Floating Admiral. Each writer worked on the mysteries without knowing the solutions the others had planned. When the creators of Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey and other sleuths get together, you can be sure the mysteries will be monumental, the detection delightful, and the results exciting!

448 p., p. of plates : 20 cm

Written over five centuries ago by Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ has been translated into more languages than any other book except the Bible. It has been acclaimed by countless readers as one of the greatest spiritual masterpieces ever written. No book except the Bible points the way so clearly to inward peace and increased faith in God: "Many words do not satisfy the soul, but a good life comforts the mind, and a pure conscience inspires confidence in God." John Wesley considered it to be of such value to spiritual growth, and the best summary of the Christian life, that he personally translated it for the use of his followers.

Monsignor Ronald Knox is a unique figure in religious publishing history. A prolific speaker, author and translator, his death two years ago apparently cut off the flow of probably the most learned yet lucid and perceptive writing on the spiritual plane this century has known. In A Layman and His Conscience, Monsignor Knox leaves as inheritance to intelligent laymen serious about the salvation of their souls. The book represents the last efforts of this gifted author to pour out his experience for the benefit of laymen to whom he was giving retreats before he became too ill to continue in the active life. He writes on such topics as the ""Love of God"", ""The Presence of God"", ""The Holy Spirit"", ""The Rosary"", ""The Holy Eucharist"" and ""The New Law"". Here is a man of God who knew the time to meet His Maker was near, distilling a lifetime of experience into these reflections. A Layman and His Conscience is a spiritual legacy for men of good will by a man who willed to share his faith with all who wished to listen.

As advertised, this series of retreat talks represents the late Monsignor Knox at his best. The talks are characterized by his customary personal directness, sincerity, intelligence, urbanity, wit, charm, gentleness and respect for his audience. Addressed to teen-age students, the meditative chats deal in the main with the inevitable subjects appropriate for any retreat, but the thought and style are unique. Emphasis is on the positive virtues and on personal religion. Where the negative has to be discussed, the stress is on wrong attitudes and commonly overlooked faults. The rhetorical bombast of the ""seasoned retreat master"" is totally absent. This book can profitably be used as a model by retreat masters and be read as a form of making a private retreat by any young Catholic.

The highly esteemed Catholic convert, writer and apologist Ronald Knox, a master of the English language, was well regarded for his gifts both of writing and preaching. This volume combines both skills as it is a collection of his homilies on all the important themes of the spiritual and moral life, and on his favorite saints, men and women of history who were "inflamed with the love of Christ". In his always descriptive, profound and witty style, Knox covers a very wide variety of pastoral themes for Christian living and growth in spiritual perfection. Themes such as "The Fatherhood of God", "The Sermon on the Mount", "The Gifts of God", "The Triumph of Suffering", "The Divine Sacrifice", and dozens more. In his "occasional" sermons on saints and Christian heroes, he shows how these heroes of history struggled with many of the same spiritual battles that modern believers encounter daily, and overcame them with faith, courage, character and virtue. These are the shining witnesses of the truth and charity we all seek to emulate.

For more than twelve years Mgr. Knox contributed every month a short sermon to The Sunday Times. In 1951 he gathered seventy-one of these sermons into a book which he entitled Stimuli. Introducing the collection Mgr. Knox warned readers to beware the sting these sermons contained: like the Scriptures, they have barbs here and there hidden beneath the surface,''ready to pierce the skin of your conscience, though it be as tough to kick the goad as the university of Tarsus can make it." At the same time Mgr. Knox pointed out that the book did not consist merely of scoldings, but contained comfort as well as admonition. This second collection contains sermons of a later date than those published in Stimuli. Through practice Mgr. Knox's skill in condensing his lesson was made perfect. This volume, I think, is both more disturbing and more comforting than the first. Each little sermon illuminates the dark corners of our conscience like a flash of lightning. The title Lightning Meditations is most apposite. Mgr. Knox carefully kept cuttings of these later sermons, and no doubt intended to republish them as a book. I have arranged them here on roughly the same pattern that Mgr. Knox followed in the first volume. No word has been altered. Occasionally I have added a footnote where there was need for a date or reference to a text.

A collection of poems & prose translated into Greek & Latin by Ronald A. Knox. Poems & short prose originally in Greek & Latin, and Knox's translations of English works into these classical languages. Includes translations of Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne & Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky into Greek, & verse by Hilaire Belloc into Latin.

Collection of essays on Samuel Johnson, The Barsetshire Novels, Robert Louis Stevenson, G.K. Chesterton and his Father Brown, detective stories, etc.

C.S. Lewis called him the wittiest man in Europe, and Ronald Knox was a deft apologist, an astute translator of the Bible, and the preacher for occasions great and small throughout the first half of the twentieth century in England. But he was first and last a priest, and it is in his sermons and retreat conferences that we meet Ronald Knox the spiritual guide. A Retreat for Lay People brings together a collection of his conferences preached over a period of fifteen years. His opening topic is Discouragement in Retreat, and he concludes with a reflection on Our Lady's Serenity. In between, Knox addresses the big questions - the fear of death, the problem of suffering, the world to come - but he also explores the little questions that loom large in our daily lives, like minor trials, liberty of spirit in prayer, and the use of God's creatures. Msgr. Knox shapes his collection around the classic Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The first eight conferences address the foundations of our spiritual life; the next eight offer reflections on the life of Our Lord; the final eight take up practical questions of living our faith in daily life. These pieces of eight are punctuated by two meditations suitable for a Holy Hour. The Eucharist was at the heart of Knox's life and his profound love for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament shines through in these talks. As in all his writing, in these conferences Ronald Knox combines love for Scripture, commitment to the Catholic faith, and sympathy for the struggles and joys of Christian discipleship. A Retreat for Lay People is solid spiritual food, served up with refreshing simplicity and a dash of wit.