Item #1245 Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality. Ronald Knox, A Gentleman, a Duster.
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality
Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality

Painted Windows; A Study in Religious Personality

London: Mills & Boon, Limited, 1922. First edition. 12 mo. (7 3/4 inches tall), original tan cloth stamped in black, uncut, original printed dust jacket. Faint stain and tiny puncture mark to front board. A near-fine copy, uncommon in original jacket. Item #1245

"RONNIE KNOX...HAS GONE OVER TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH"

First edition of these profiles of Bishop Gore, Dean Inge and 10 other prominent religious figures in English life—notable for a withering appraisal of "Father Ronald Knox." Complete here in the original printed dust jacket with a general epigraph: "The Saints do not contradict each other" (The Dean of St. Paul's).

Painted Windows was published by an anonymous author writing under the pseudonym "A Gentleman with a Duster." In an obituary for Begbie, his publisher Charles Boon was reported to have said that the identity of the Gentleman with the Duster, the anonymous author of The Mirrors of Downing Street and Painted Windows, was "one of the most closely guarded secrets in the publishing world," which Begbie revealed only to "his closest friends, who were sworn to secrecy" (New York Times, October 1929). Following laudatory assessments of Bishop Gore ("he has in sober truth forsaken everything for the Kingdom of God") and Dean Inge (compared to Dr. Samuel Johnson), the author scrutinizes the "secession" of Father Ronald Knox as evidence of the "theological chaos of the present-time."

The chapter on Knox begins with an epigraph: "Our new curate preached, a pretty hopefull young man, yet somewhat raw, newly come from college, full of Latine sentences, which in time will weare off" (John Evelyn). Contending that Knox "did not so much 'go over to Rome' as sidle away from the Church of England," Begbie sourly contrasts Knox with other notable converts, "The Church of Rome has caught in him neither a Newman nor a Manning." Relating an anecdotal visit to Westminster Cathedral to hear Knox preach, the author concludes: "I am sure Ronald Knox was never meant to shut his eyes and stop his ears against this movement of truth, and I am almost sure that he will presently find it impossible not to look, and not to listen. And then...what then?" Bound with a publisher's catalogue at the rear, including reviews of Painted Windows ("the book with a clue"), and with additional titles listed on the back panel and flaps of the scarce original dust jacket.

Price: $75.00

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