ISSN: 0214-6827 EXCERPTA E DISSERTATIONIBUS IN SACRA THEOLOGIA cuadernos doctorales DE LA Facultad DE teologÍA PUBLICACIÓN PERIÓDICA DE LA FACULTAD DE TEOLOGÍA UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA / PAMPLONA / ESPAÑA ANDREW SOANE Frank Sheed and his worldCentro, unidad o servicio de primer nivel Popular Apologetics in Twentieth Century England Centro, unidad o servicio de primer nivel Centro, unidad o servicio de segundo nivel VoluMEN 63 / 2015 separata EXCERPTA E DISSERTATIONIBUS IN SACRA THEOLOGIA cuadernos doctorales DE LA Facultad DE teologÍA PUBLICACIÓN PERIÓDICA DE LA FACULTAD DE TEOLOGÍA / UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA PAMPLONA / ESPAÑA / ISSN: 0214-6827 VOLUMEN 63 /2015 DIRECTOR/ EDITOR Esta publicación recoge los extractos de las tesis doctorales J. José Alviar defendidas en la Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Navarra. UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA La labor científica desarrollada y recogida en esta publicación VOCALES ha sido posible gracias a la ayuda prestada por el Centro Juan Luis Caballero UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA Académico Romano Fundación (CARF) Fernando Milán UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA SECRETARIO José María Pardo UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA Redacción, Edita: Fotocomposición: DL: NA 733-1984 administración, Servicio de Publicaciones [email protected] SP ISSN: 0214-6827 intercambios y de la Universidad Imprime: suscripciones: de Navarra, S.A. Ulzama Digital Excerpta e Dissertationibus Campus Universitario in Sacra Theologia. 31080 Pamplona (España) Tamaño: 170 x 240 mm Facultad de Teología. T. 948 425 600 Universidad de Navarra. 31080 Pamplona Precios 2015: (España) Suscripciones 1 año: 30 € Tel: 948 425 600. Extranjero: 43 € Fax: 948 425 633. e-mail: [email protected] EXCERPTA E DISSERTATIONIBUS IN SACRA THEOLOGIA cuadernos doctorales DE LA Facultad DE teologÍA VOLUMEN 63 / 2015 René Alejandro ADRIAENSÉNS TERRONES La dirección espiritual en revistas españolas de espiritualidad 5-83 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. Pablo Marti Alejandro CÓRDOVA SUÁREZ La fundamentación teológica de la moral social en los manuales postconciliares 85-171 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. Gregorio Guitián José María ESTEBAN CRUZADO La virginidad cristiana en Cipriano de Cartago 173-245 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. Juan Antonio Gil Andrés Pedro RANT LESAR Relaciones entre la Iglesia y el Estado Argentino (1943-1955) 247-329 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. Santiago Casas Andrew SOANE Frank Sheed and his world. Popular Apologetics in Twentieth Century England 331-407 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. José Luis Gutiérrez Abel VILLAROJO SOLANO The Mysteries of the Life of Christ in J. H. Newman 409-489 Tesis doctoral dirigida por el Prof. Dr. José Morales Contenido Presentation 333 Index of the Thesis 337 Bibliography of the Thesis 343 I. Magisterium 343 II. Works of Frank Sheed 343 Universidad de Navarra III. Writings on the life and work of Frank Sheed 344 Facultad de Teología IV. Primary Sources for the Catholic Evidence Movement 344 V. Secondary Sources for the Catholic Evidence Movement 346 VI. Primary Sources on Other Topics 346 VII. Secondary Sources for Other Topics 349 VIII. Archives and Correspondence 351 IX. Newspapers Consulted 351 Frank Sheed and his world Andrew SOANE Popular Apologetics in Twentieth Century England 353 1. The Dawn of the Catholic Evidence Movement 353 1.1. The Planting of the Seeds 354 1.2. The Catholic Truth Society 355 1.3. The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom 358 Frank Sheed and his world 1.4. The Barrow Brigade 359 Popular Apologetics in Twentieth Century England 1.5. The Catholic Missionary Society 360 1.6. The Catholic Evidence Guild 362 1.7. Conclusions 366 2. The Westminster Catholic Evidence Guild 366 2.1. Professionalisation and Expansion 366 2.2. The Speakers 369 2.3. The Lectures 372 2.4. Defining Controversies 374 Extracto de la Tesis Doctoral presentada en la 2.5. The Spiritual Life of the Guild 379 Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Navarra 2.6. Hazards 381 2.7. Conversion Stories 384 2.8. Frank Sheed 385 2.9. Conclusions 389 Notes 391 Index of Excerptum 407 Pamplona 2015 Ad normam Statutorum Facultatis Theologiae Universitatis Navarrensis, perlegimus et adprobavimus Pampilonae, die 12 mensis novembris anni 2014 Dr. Ioseph Ludovicus GUTIÉRREZ Dr. Ioannes ALONSO Coram tribunali, die 11 mensis iunii anni 2014, hanc dissertationem ad Lauream Candidatus palam defendit Secretarius Facultatis D. nus Eduardus FLANDES Cuadernos doctorales de la Facultad de Teología Excerpta e Dissertationibus in Sacra Theologia Vol. LXIII, n. 5 Presentation Resumen: Este trabajo examina la obra de Frank Abstract: This thesis examines the work of Frank Sheed, Sheed, editor, escritor y orador de la causa católica. publisher, writer and lecturer in the Catholic cause. Be- Comienza con una introducción a la apologética, ginning with an introduction to apologetics, and to seguido por una exposición del contexto histórico y the historical and religious context of late Victorian religioso en los últimos tiempos de la Inglaterra victo- England, it investigates the rise of popular apologetics riana. Luego, investiga el aumento de la apologética and the emergence of organised public speaking by popular así como el inicio de hablar en público orga- Catholics. It then describes the history of the Catholic nizado por católicos. A continuación, se describe la Evidence Guild, and the arc of its development, and that historia del Catholic Evidence Guild. Frank Sheed fue el of popular apologetics in general. Frank Sheed was the líder del Guild. También fue el editor que más se asocia Guild’s leader. He was also the publisher most associ- con la restauración intelectual y literaria católica en ated with the Catholic intellectual and literary revival of Inglaterra; la historia de la casa editorial Sheed & Ward the inter-war period; the history of Sheed & Ward is out- se describe y se sitúa en su contexto. Sheed escribió lined and placed in context. Sheed wrote several classic varias obras apologéticas. Su metodología apologética works of practical apologetics. His apologetical method se describe con ejemplos, y evaluaciones. Esta tesia is described with reference to examples, and assessed. evalúa la importancia de Sheed en la apologética in- Sheed’s importance is evaluated. Reasons are sought glesa. Asimismo, se buscan razones para la eventual for the eventual decline of the Guild, of Catholics speak- disminución del Guild y de la apologética popular. ing in public, and of popular apologetics. Palabras clave: Apologética, Catholic Evidence Guild, Keywords: Apologetics, Catholic Evidence Guild, Frank Sheed Frank Sheed The first two thirds of the twentieth century was a golden age of apologetics in England. Gifted writers such as Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Christopher Dawson and many others, employed their art in the ser- vice of the Church they loved, and which most of them had entered as adults, towards the fortification of the faith among Catholics, and the conversion of non-Catholic England. Frank Sheed’s position among the writers of the so-called ‘Catholic Lit- erary Revival’ could be likened to that of conductor of the orchestra. He ran the publishing house Sheed & Ward over four decades, from the mid-1920s to the mid-1960s, and he was the publisher of many of their best-known works. EXCERPTA E DISSERTATIONIBUS IN SACRA THEOLOGIA CUADERNOS DOCTORALES DE LA facultad DE TEOLOGÍA / VOL. 63 / 2015 / 331-407 333 ISSN: 0214-6827 ANDREW SOANE But he was more than just an organiser, because he was himself one of the best of the Catholic writers of the era. Sheed’s twenty-nine books were published over a period of fifty-five years; the first was written in 1926, and the last in 1981, the year of his death. His best works were critical and commercial triumphs when published and have never been out of print; several of them have been translated into other languages. Among them are several classics, such as A Map of Life, Theology and Sanity and To Know Christ Jesus. Throughout the period of the Literary Revival, from the 1890s through to the 1960s, there also flourished the so-called Catholic Evidence Move- ment, which produced an army of street-corner apologists who taught the Catholic faith to the general public, speaking from soapboxes to the crowds in the parks and on the street corners of (first) London, and (later) other major cities. The movement was made up of several organizations, but the largest of them was the Catholic Evidence Guild. At the height of the Guild’s work in the 1930s it could count on over 600 open-air-speakers nationally, as well as the supporting work of many thousands of other helpers. Frank Sheed was there too. He and his wife, Maisie Ward, were great street orators who led the Catholic Evidence Guild from the early 1920s through to World War II, recruiting and training its speakers, writing – and publish- ing – its training outlines, rallying the faithful at the annual meetings, and urging forward the mission for the ‘conversion of England’. For other Catho- lic writers, apologetics was important; for Frank Sheed, it was his life’s work. Sheed was a street-corner speaker first and foremost, before he was a publisher or writer. The influence of speaking from the open-air platform influenced his work both as a writer and as a publisher. The object of the dissertation is to study the work of Frank Sheed, pub- lisher, writer and public orator in the cause of ‘Catholic truth’, in the context of the Catholic Evidence Movement. The thesis aims further to show how the Catholic Evidence Guild exerted its wider influence, which it did through Sheed’s writings, and further through the activities of the publishing house Sheed & Ward. The study examines Sheed’s apologetical writings and analyses his apologetics, comparing it with the apologetics of the Guild. It also com- pares Sheed’s apologetics with that of the scientific treatise of Apologetics, and draws conclusions as to its continuity with it, and its novelty.