Christ in the Church: A Volume of Religious Essays (Benson)

A review of this title features in The WM Review.

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Do you question the Church's possession of the Truth? So did Pilate. Do you think Her too worldly? Consider Christ enthroned as King. Does it seem as though She is hopelessly outdated, doomed to pass away? Remember that Christ was crucified and then He rose again! This book is a source of hope for faithful Catholics, a scourge for detractors, an exegetical work of art. 

In these essays, Robert Hugh Benson counters some of the strongest attacks that have been levied against the Church by showing how She relives the life of Christ in the world today. Benson begins the collection with a radical, yet orthodox, premise: Christ lives in and acts through His Church just as He acted in his Incarnate Body here on Earth. If this claim is valid, if the Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ, then we should expect to see close parallels between the Church in the world and Christ in the Gospels.

Christ in the Church considers Christ's work on Earth in three sections: His life and ministry, His passion and rejection, and His ultimate failure and triumph. In the first, Benson exhibits the very character of the Church and her ministry. Like Christ Himself, who was both a poor carpenter's son and the Messiah, the Church especially draws the lowest and the mightiest, the shepherds and the kings to Herself. The second section masterfully parallels Christ's condemners to the Church's modern-day critics. Benson's third section shows how, just as Christ's ultimate victory was in His defeat-His death on the cross-so, too, does the Church triumph in Her splendor of Truth despite tides of scandal and corruption. Her ultimate victory despite these challenges is sure evidence that She is Christ's Mystical Body.

Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914), the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was educated at Eton and Trinity College. Drawn toward the High-Church tradition, Benson was ordained an Anglican priest by his father, but began to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church during a trip to the Middle East in 1896. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1903 and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood the following year. Amid his various ecclesial duties, he was a well-known preacher and a prolific writer, and his works span many genres, including science and historical fiction, contemporary novels, children's books, apologetics, plays, poetry, and devotional material.

Paperback ISBN: 9781915544322 €11.95 | ebook ISBN: 9781915544339 €8.99