Fulton J. Sheen's Preface to Religion (1946) seeks to bring the curious, open soul the answers that they seek. For someone on the periphery of faith, wondering why they are the way they are and where they can find relief from inner turmoil, the answers in this book will lead them to the Truth.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (b. 1895 - d. 1979) was a priest, writer, and host of several Catholic television and radio programs between 1930 and 1968. A highly educated man, Archbishop Sheen studied at the Catholic University of America, and received doctorates from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum in Rome.
In 1930, then-Father Sheen began a weekly radio broadcast called The Catholic Hour, which eventually reached a weekly audience of four million people. Over 20 years later, he switched mediums with a television program called Life is Worth Living. Another success, this simple show had Bishop Sheen speaking directly to the camera on topics of faith and scripture. His straightforward program held its own in the ratings up against prime time stars like Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra.
In addition to his media appearances, Archbishop Sheen also wrote dozens of books and articles on theology and Catholicism. His 1946 work Preface to Religion explores the truth about God, mankind, and the individual reader. He asks the reader to look inward, to reflect on their life and its true nature in order to find the source of their discontent.
"Your life has been a series of disappointments, shocks, and disillusionments," Archbishop Sheen explains. "How have you reacted to your disappointments? Either you became cynical or else you became religious." The cynic seeks life's pleasures, but finds no true joy in them. The gulf between the happiness they imagine and the reality of life gets wider and wider. And even those pleasures that they enjoyed at one time can turn to pain. But for those who instead turn to religion, they find what never disappoints: "Perfect Life, Perfect Truth, and Perfect Love."
The book explores human nature, seeking to answer why we say we wish to do one thing, but instead do the opposite. "Your soul is the battlefield of a great civil war...God made us one way; we made ourselves, in virtue of our freedom, another way." This pull between our true nature as made by God and our actions through our own weakness is the constant tension in our lives. "You are like a man fallen into a well. You know you ought not to be there, and you know you cannot get out by yourself."
So how can you get out of the well? This "fish out of water" feeling, argues Archbishop Sheen, can only be resolved through God. The solution is a religion that sees your confusion, sees your struggle, and offers you a guide through God's love and written commandments.
Can one not find religion personally, without the aid of the Church? What about those who claim to not want anyone standing between them and God? To this, Archbishop Sheen reminds the reader of the vital community at the heart of the life of faith. "Did He not also make love of God absolutely inseparable from love of neighbor?" Religion is not private. There are established laws of nature and established laws of religion. And in both, "All the best things of life come from solidarity and fellowship."
While Preface to Religion does explore some of the details of scripture and the Word of God, it reads more like a work of philosophy, seeking to answer the personal questions that one may be afraid to ask about the nature of humanity, faith, and religion. After reading this text and finding the truth, the reader is ready for a closer examination of scripture and a closer relationship to God the Creator.
