The Creed in Slow Motion - Ronald Knox

By Monsignor Ronald Knox

During the WWII bombing of London, Ronald Knox found himself the chaplain of a girls’ high school where students were being sheltered. When his existing homilies were exhausted, Knox began to write new ones for his students based on the Apostles’ Creed. The homilies were so well-received that they were later published as The Creed in Slow Motion.

The Christian life demands both action and speech. Christians must, in the words of St. James, “live by the word, not content merely to listen to it.” And St. Peter exhorts: “If anyone asks you to give an account of the hope which you cherish, be ready at all times to answer for it.” The “Slow Motion” collections of Monsignor Ronald Knox take up these admonitions and provide indispensable assistance for the proper fulfillment of these Christian duties. Whereas The Mass in Slow Motion endows its readers with a clear vision of the liturgy and their necessary role therein, this volume, The Creed in Slow Motion, equips its readers to confidently articulate their faith.

And God made Man did not lose the characteristics of Godhead; he went to work very slowly, for all the world to see that he was God. (Ronald Knox)

In the opening sermon, Knox links the Credo to the Confiteor to emphasize the fundamentally personal nature of faith. “It is always Confiteor we say, not Con­fitemur, even when we are saying it together. Why? Because my sins are my sins, and your sins are your sins; each of us is individually responsible. So it is with the Credo; each of us, in lonely isolation, makes himself or herself responsible for that tremendous statement, I believe in God.” As a consequence, the one worthy of the grace to say Credo is also responsible for being ready to say it with proper understanding. Preached with the full homage of Knox’s wit and intelligence, The Creed in Slow Motion is a certain aid for achieving that readiness.