Confessions Of A Convert

Mentioned by Pope Francis as a writer whom everyone should read, Robert Hugh Benson, author of Lord of the World, shares his spiritual journey from being an Anglican and son of the archbishop of Canterbury to becoming a Roman Catholic priest. Through his humble, honest, and memorable story, Benson invites us—in this republished classic—to think about what it means to wrestle with the deep questions of our Catholic faith while rejoicing in the power of their universal truths. In 1907, The Ave Maria magazine invited well-known English novelist Robert Hugh Benson to share his conversion story. He began the first of eight installments with a statement that captures the perils and joys faced by converts as they attempt to "cross the Tiber." "When one stands at last upon high ground, it is extraordinarily difficult to trace the road by which one has approached: it winds, rises, falls, broadens and narrows until the mind is bewildered." Benson weaves those challenges into Confessions of a Convert as he examines his own life for the signs and wonders that illuminated his way. He was astonished at how the remote God of his Anglican upbringing drew close to him, igniting a fire in his to heart and a desire to know God on a deeper level. This transformation led him to the doorstep of the Catholic Church. Reluctant to venture further because he was known as an important figure in the Anglican world, Benson grappled with the sacrifices he would make, including the loss of his vocation, family, and friends. After the death of his father, Benson finally embraced the nearness of God found in the Eucharist. He shows us that coming closer to Christ and his Church is not always neat and tidy. Benson’s humor and humility help bridge the century-long gap between his time and ours and he teaches us to embrace the questions, struggles, and falterings of our faith in a way that’s full of God’s love.

An Autobiography of Fr Robert Hugh Benson's Conversion from the Church of England to the Catholic Church.

An Autobiography of Fr Robert Hugh Benson's Conversion from the Church of England to the Catholic Church.

An Autobiography of Fr Robert Hugh Benson's Conversion from the Church of England to the Catholic Church.

Confessions of a Convert is Robert Hugh Benson's autobiographical account of his journey from an Anglican brought up in "the moderate High Church school of thought" to a Catholic priest living under "the sunlight of Eternal Truth." Benson was raised as a faithful, yet unreflective member of the Anglican communion, whose childhood was dominated by his father's, the Archbishop of Canterbury's, unquestioning commitment to doctrine. Theology was merely the family business, and hints at a more personal relationship with God only arose with snatches of poetry or a fleetingly splendid line from a sermon. As the years progressed, however, Benson felt called to join his father in the priesthood, and he was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1895. Benson recounts how his growing love of ritual and the sacrament of Confession first turned his thoughts towards Catholicism, transforming his childhood contempt for the Church into sympathy. These loves simultaneously planted doubts about the Anglican communion since he could nowhere find a unanimous interpretation of its doctrines. For years, Benson alternated between contented faith and turbulent questioning. Eventually, however, Catholicism's invincible unity and deep ritual swayed his mind and heart, and Benson was received into the Church in 1903. Benson weaves an intricate tapestry of thoughts, images, impressions and arguments-all of which lead to his conversion. Above all, it is the Church's unflinching and eternal answer to the perennial question, "Master, what must I do to be saved?" that stands as the cornerstone of Benson's Catholic faith. Confessions of a Convert appeals to neophytes and cradle-Catholics alike as a testament to true faith, revealing how God uses family, history, beauty, and liturgy to call His children home. Mgr Benson's 'Confessions of a Convert' are edifying and entertaining in equal measure, and a fascinating snapshot of the Anglican and Catholic scenes in his day. They remind us of the great soul-searching and also personal suffering undertaken by the generations of converts, from Newman up to the 1950s, who enriched the Catholic Church in the British Isles while the Church was subject to the soft persecution of prejudice and social exclusion.-Joseph Shaw PhD, Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Benet's Hall, Oxford University, Chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales This is a story about a man who was obedient to the Truth, wherever it led. By worldly standards, Benson had everything to lose by converting to Catholicism, and nothing to gain. As an affluent, cultured, and well-connected son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, he lacked no opportunity to build for himself an exquisitely pleasant life as an Anglican priest. But he left that life behind, because it was not built upon the foundation Christ had established for His Church. This is a moving story of deep loss, but even deeper joy, as the author realizes that what is True is also equally Good and Beautiful. - Thomas Ward PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Baylor University In Robert Hugh Benson's most candid and autobiographical work, the reader is struck by the intellectual honesty that paved the way for his renunciation of the Anglican religion. Continually guided by his love for the truth, the book reads like an epic journey into what one contemporary of his calls 'the City of Peace'. Those who grew up in the Catholic Church will find in Confessions of a Convert an intriguing insight into the seismic transformation that can sometimes occur en route to Catholicism: non-Catholics will find in it all the reasons they need to convert. - Fr. Patrick O'Donohue, Irish Apostolate of the Fraternity of St. Peter

An Autobiography of Fr Robert Hugh Benson's Conversion from the Church of England to the Catholic Church

WINNER OF THE WOLFSON PRIZE FOR HISTORY 2015 A major new interpretation of how one of the great figures of Christian history came to write the greatest of all autobiographies Augustine is the person from the ancient world about whom we know most. He is the author of an intimate masterpiece, the Confessions, which continues to delight its many admirers. In it he writes about his infancy and his schooling in the classics in late Roman North Africa, his remarkable mother, his sexual sins ('Give me chastity, but not yet,' he famously prayed), his time in an outlawed heretical sect, his worldly career and friendships and his gradual return to God. His account of his own eventual conversion is a classic study of anguish, hesitation and what he believes to be God's intervention. It has inspired philosophers, Christian thinkers and monastic followers, but it still leaves readers wondering why exactly Augustine chose to compose a work like none before it. Robin Lane Fox follows Augustine on a brilliantly described journey, combining the latest scholarship with recently found letters and sermons by Augustine himself to give a portrait of his subject which is subtly different from older biographies. Augustine's heretical years as a Manichaean, his relation to non-Christian philosophy, his mystical aspirations and the nature of his conversion are among the aspects of his life which stand out in a sharper light. For the first time Lane Fox compares him with two contemporaries, an older pagan and a younger Christian, each of whom also wrote about themselves and who illumine Augustine's life and writings by their different choices. More than a decade passed between Augustine's conversion and his beginning the Confessions. Lane Fox argues that the Confessions and their thinking were the results of a long gestation over these years, not a sudden change of perspective, but that they were then written as a single swift composition and that its final books are a coherent consummation of its scriptural meditation and personal biography. This exceptional study reminds us why we are so excited and so moved by Augustine's story.