Catholic Action

Abstract

Today there are exist lag in the world two opposing systems of thought. The first is that of Christianity, based on a philosophy of life which maintains that the origin and end of life can and must be found in God. Upon Christ, who is the son of God depends the very salvation of the individual and consequently the family and society. It holds that this life la merely a preparation for man's final destiny, and maintains that the individual in order to attain this destiny must determine his line of conduct by the light of both reason and revelation. Opposed to this is that philosophy which represents a combination of materialism and rationalism. There is no walk of life that has not felt the influence of this godless spirit: the appaling rate of divorce, and the increased agitation for birth control indicate its presence in the family; and the industrial chaos brought on in the present depression show its presence in our economic life. The breach between this neo-paganism and Christianity is daily becoming more pronounced, further yet, some observers maintain that this breach is rapidly narrowing down to a conflict between Catholicism as the sole representative of Christianity on the one hand and Communism, which is the logical outcome of a materialistic concept of life. Christopher Dawson, in his essay Christianity and the New Age, says, "The choice that is actually before us is not between an individualistic materialism and some form of collectivism, but between a collectivism that is purely mechanistic and one that is spiritual. Spiritual individualism is incapable of standing out against the collectivism and standardisation of modern life; it is only by a return to spiritual solidarity that modern civilisation can recover the spiritual principle of which It stands so greatly in need.”