Catholic Teaching in Patmore’s The Angel in the House and the Unknown Eros

Abstract

The world of today, as at various times in the past, seems to be at a crucial point. This age of science, which was to make man supreme, has apparently only enslaved him through the radical social and religious changes it has engendered. | Among the questions which converge to bring about the present state of world wide unrest and turmoil, none are more vital than those concerning the family and religion. So serious have been the inroads on the family through divorce and other nefarious practices, that society, of which the family is the basis, is seriously threatened. Religion, no less than the family, has been profoundly affected by the changes that have occurred in modern thought. Not only have the main tenets of faith been attacked, but various countries are engaged in the age old, vain attempt to wipe out the very idea of God. | Strange as it may seem, these very dangers which threaten Church and family have been productive of great good. They have become the cause of wide spread efforts to restore both family life and religion to something like their pristine vigor, A renewed interest in the family and a deeper appreciation of religion as the mainstay of the individual and society is the happy result thus far. Tat much remains to be dona.