"This book," the author wrote in 1931, "is an attempt to judge contemporary ideas in the field of morals, religion, science, evolution, sociology, psychology and humanism in the light of the philosophical daylight called 'common sense.' If at times it criticizes certain views on the grounds of their unreasonableness, it does so to prepare for a view which seems more reasonable. If at other times it shows that what is wrong with a certain philosophical outlook is an emphasis on a part against the whole, it does so in order to suggest a view that is more catholic in the sense of being the whole truth." There is little sympathy in these pages for those who believe that everything modern is good, or that everything modern is bad.

The remarkable -- if unsettling -- discovery is that seventy-five years later, Bishop Sheen's challenge o tired "old errors" still finds some of them huffing and puffing under entirely new garb.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), one of the 20th century's best-known and loved Catholic prelates, was a lecturer, professor, philosopher, preacher, and writer. A radio and television personality, he is widely regarded as the original media luminary for the spiritual world. This former director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith leaves behind an enormous written and oral history. In addition to two weekly syndicated newspaper columns that ran for close to two decades, he authored scores of books.