The Catholic Church and Conversion

G. K. Chesterton was raised a Unitarian, and did not enter the Catholic Church until he was 48 years old. Five years later he penned 'The Catholic Church and Conversion' in which, with typical brilliance and erudition, he justifies his action and describes the process that led to his conversion. Chesterton describes three stages of conversion: Patronizing the Church; Discovering the Church; and Fleeing from the Church. At this final point, the potential convert realizes with no small degree of trepidation that it is not enough to agree intellectually with Catholic philosophy - one must live it. For Chesterton, the Catholic Church represents age-old moral values; it is "the only thing that saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age." Despite its hide-bound and traditionalist image, Chesterton found in Catholicism a home for his exceptional mind: "To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think." This is an absorbing, profound account of one man's spiritual journey that can be read with profit by believer and non-believer alike.… (more)