[.ca] Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of ... (ISBN 0895554542)

Strange title, great book:
This book, despite the strange title is probably Belloc's greatest. It is, in some way, a follow-up of "Great Heresies". "Survivals" are old methods for attacking the Catholic Church that are on the way out. For instance, the Biblical Attack accuses the Church of not interpreting the Old Testament literally enough: Biblical literalism is now untenable by anybody with a minimal knowledge of science. The "Wealth and Power" Attack stressed the superior material cultures of Protestant states: the increase in wealth of Catholic countries totally demolished it. The "Historical Argument" was based on bad history, etc. The "Main Opposition" are the main forces that Belloc observed working against Catholicism at his time (1929). Nationalism (as opposed to Patriotism) was the main one. He predicted (correctly) that Nationalism would be weakened by the forces of international finance. Nowadays we have seen this prediction completely vindicated by the destruction not just of fanatic Nationalism, but also of legitimate Patriotism and National Sovereignty by the institution of global finance: the WTO and NAFTA, for instance. The description of Anti-Clericalism should be very instructive to anybody from a protestant country, because Anti-Clericalism is the main opposition to the Faith in nominally Catholic countries. I was born in one (Italy) and I found Belloc's description most perceptive. The third and worst of the main opposition forces is "The Modern Mind". Belloc's analysis of "The Modern Mind" alone is worth the price of the book. You really need to read his magnificent description of the phenomenon that today would be called "Post-Modernism". "New Arrivals" are the future enemies that will fight the Faith in a final battle: They are the "New Paganism", "Witchcraft and Necromancy" and, finally, Anti-Christ. While Anti-Christ is not clearly identifiable, the pagan tendencies and the resurgence of idiotic (but dangerous) forms of occultism should be obvious to any observer of contemporary society. The final chapter analyses the opportunities for the Church arising from the very nature of the opposing forces: the ugliness of paganism, the falsity of occultism and the total stupidity of the "Modern Mind" will offend even educated non-Christians and make them realize that something is seriously wrong.