THEOLOGY AND SANITY

BY F. J.  SHEED
SHEED & WARD LONDON AND NEW YORK. FIRST PUBLISHED 1947
BY SHEED AND WARD LTD.  110-111   FLEET STREET  LONDON,  E.C-4
AND SHEED AND WARD INC  830 BROADWAY  NEW YORK
FIFTH IMPRESSION 1951
Nihil Obstat: Patricius Morris, D.D., L.ss.  Censor Deputatus Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard  vie. gen.
WESTMONASTERE   DIE  l6A  AUGUSTI  1946
Printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd  Paulton (Somerset) and London
This edition prepared for katapi by Paul Ingram 2004.

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FOREWORD

I played with the thought of dedicating this book
TO ALL WHO KNOW LESS THEOLOGY THAN I.
It would have sounded flippant.
But it would have been exact.
There are thousands who know more theology than I,
and for them I have no message:
they must teach me.
But there are thousands who know less,
and less is not enough:
I must try to teach them.
This book contains theology,
not the great mass of it that theologians need,
but the indispensable minimum that every man needs
in order that he may be living mentally in the REAL WORLD -
which is what the word SANITY means in my title.

Sanity, remember, does not mean living in the same world as everyone else;
it means living in the real world.
But some of the most important elements in the real world
can be known only by the revelation of God,
which it is theology's business to study.
Lacking this knowledge,
the mind must live a half-blind life,
trying to cope with a reality most of which it does not know is there.
This is a wretched state for an immortal spirit, and pretty certain to lead to disaster.
There is a good deal of disaster around at this moment.

F. J. S.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Quotations from the translation of the New Testament by Monsignor Ronald Knox are made by courtesy of the publishers, Messrs. Burns, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd.
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