Preface to Religion

Preface to Religion by Ven Fulton Sheen, 228 pages

Preface to Religion is a relatively short, but solid, apologetical work by Sheen, distilled from his popular radio program The Catholic Hour, the predecessor of his even more popular, Emmy award-winning television show Life Is Worth Living.  Sheen was, above all, an extremely talented popularizer of Catholic theology, able to take seemingly abstract ideas and Latin terminology and explain how they relate to everyday life.  Likewise, his own considerable intelligence and learning made him able to explicate broader currents in thought and culture in Christian terms.  All these gifts are put to good use here.

For the reader from the twenty-first century, it is refreshing that Sheen considers religion, not as therapy, but as participation in Truth.  The only path to self-help he offers is "he that shall lose his life for Me, will find it" - it is not an accident that the first chapter is titled "Are You Happy?" and the last "Charity".  For Sheen, the search for happiness is only fulfilled in the self-surrender of love.