Seeking the City: A Spiritual Autobiography

"TO HAVE REMAINED INDEFINITELY AS AN ANGLICAN WOULD NOW MEAN FOR ME SPIRITUAL DEATH"

First edition recounting Edward Charles Rich's 1956 "submission to the Catholic and Roman Church," in the original typographic dust jacket.

Rich's Anglo-Catholicism grew into an Anglo-Papalism, driven by a desire for unity and a need for authority. The text, divided into nine chapters, concludes with Rich's epiphany: "That night I suddenly awoke and knew that not only had my work in the Church of England come to end; it had also ceased to be possible for me to continue. To have remained indefinitely as an Anglican would now mean for me spiritual death." Rich spent a few days at Downside Abbey, where it was arranged for him to be received at Farm Street on May 19th, the Vigil of Pentecost. The next day—after 35 years in the ministry of the Church of England—Rich made his first Communion and was confirmed by Cardinal Griffin in Westminster Cathedral. With a short Foreword (initialed "E.C.R") focusing on the doctrine of revelation and authority as the impetus for his conversion: "The ultimate problem facing us in a divided Christendom lies in the presuppositions of faith—in other words, in the kind of belief we entertain about the nature of revelation." The text concludes with a valuable appendix: "Quo Tendimus? Fears and Prospects for the Catholic Movement in the Church of England: An open letter to all who seek for the peace and unity of Christ's Church." The Appendix consists of an Introduction and three sections: II. Faith and Reason, III. The Fullness of Faith, and IV. Catholic Principles. The customary publisher's jacket copy has been moved from the flaps to the typographical front panel of the jacket. Menendez. Road to Rome, 136.