Paradoxes of Catholicism

First published in 1913, this book is Benson's defense of Catholicism against those who attack the Church from the angle of both extremes (i.e. to Meek and to Violent). His answer for the many paradoxes found within Catholicism is the complete Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ. From this basis he explains how the Church can be both Wealthy and Poor, Joyful and Sorrowful, Meek and Violent, etc. Benson writes, "We have considered, so far, a number of paradoxical phenomena exhibited in the life of Catholicism and have attempted to find their reconciliation in the fact that the Catholic Church is at once Human and Divine. In her striving, for example, after a Divine and supernatural Peace, of which she alone possesses the secret, she resists even unto blood all human attempts to supplant this by another. As a human society, again, she avails herself freely of human opportunities and aids, of earthly and created beauty, for the setting forth of her message; yet she can survive, as can no human society, when she is deprived of her human rights and her acquired wealth."