Blackfriars , Modernism, and Catholic Apologetics Prior to Vatican II

In 1920, the journal Blackfriars was established ‘to state and defend truth’. Its publications served this mission from 1920 to 1964, during the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), prior to its transformation into the scholarly journal New Blackfriars. Blackfriars was intended for an educated, but not scholarly, audience. Apologetics was near and dear to the original mission of Blackfriars . This article examines some of the apologetical themes and treatments in the periodical’s pages from 1920 to 1964, situating these discussions in the context of the anti-Modernist Catholic culture that emerged after Pope St Pius X’s condemnation of Modernism in 1907. The main areas of apologetical discussion that emerged in the pages of Blackfriars centered on Catholic responses to Protestants, the phenomenological approach to the study of religion, challenges stemming from biological evolution, Modernism (both Catholic and Protestant), and modern biblical studies.