Communism and the Conscience of the West

Book excerpt: Communism and the Conscience of the West revolves around the single, disconcerting idea that Communism, in both its ideological and practical forms, is on the conscience of the Western world. Because the West has broadly lost that spiritual sensibility which made it great, thus reducing both man and cosmos to wholly material and base realities, Fulton J. Sheen argues, there is nothing to prevent the dissolution of the old order into a new and terrifying totality. And thus appears Communism: the recalcitrant, neurotic child of a permissive, neglectful parent. Since it first appeared in 1948, during the initial frigid days of the Cold War, Communism and the Conscience of the West has proven to be a prophetic witness to the grave dangers of decadent, individualistic liberalism and atheistic, collectivist totalitarianism alike. While the Cold War has ended and Soviet Union passed away, these dangers have endured and even metastasized. For the basic struggle remains: the moral and spiritual struggle for the very soul of mankind.