Saturday, March 12, 2011

Belloc, A Liberal?


Share/Bookmark An eye-opening article from Tradition in Action.


Part one.
Part two.
Part three.


8 comments:

ToS said...

Do you agree?

Nick said...

This is definately sad - if true - but I have a hard time believing Belloc was that ill informed himself. The FR has been condemned on various levels by various popes. That he would come close to associating his views with the FR is hard to believe, especially since I understand him as faithful to Catholicism in every other respect. The very fact the Catholic Church and Catholic faithful were subject to the worst persecution at the "Revolution" should be obvious enough to repudiate it. Hard to believe, but sad if true.

felapton said...

I think that TIA page doesn't have much positive intentions, rather that for denigration of persons who aren't in any way compromising Catholic faith. Disastrous tabloid which should be avoided.

Don Paco said...

I am still thinking about it. I don't know Belloc's thought enough to make a judgment. But some of those quotes are pretty incriminating.

John L said...

To be fair, Belloc was reflecting the history of the Revolution presented in France in the 19th century by people like Jules Michelet, who whitewhased it thoroughly. It was of course a totally inaccurate history, but he was not a defender of what actually happened during the Revolution.

shane said...

Belloc was an ardent French Nationalist, who couldn't bear the thought that the revolution that created modern France was anything less than glorious. Similarly to him Napoleon was just restoring a unity to continental Europe that had been shattered by the Reformation, and therefore to be regarded as a champion of Christian civilization.

As for the French Revolution and the Church, please see this article (pg 392).

Stomachosus said...

Belloc supported guilds. He supported a medieval structure of society. TIA is a malicious group who has a vendetta against Distributism. But are so incompetent that they associate Belloc with ideas antithetical to the very system he advocated, something not wholly in line with the Revolution. Frankly, as far as the social order goes, TIA is more in line with the French Revolution. They are certainly classical liberals. They are fauz tradition, with no training in theology and philosophy and with a lot of bile and hate

Geremia said...

How would you respond to Rousseau's claim that the Catholic religion gives "men two legislative orders, two rulers, two homelands, puts them under two contradictory obligations and prevents them being at the same time both churchmen and citizens." This is particularly important today since many Catholics lead dual lives; just look at the 2008 United States presidential election results and how the majority of Catholics voted against the bishops' advice. Thanks