The sermons of Ronald Knox, in Evelyn Waugh's estimation, contain the very best of his literary talent and pastoral sensibility. "Prepared, revised and rehearsed with every refinement of taste and skill," the sermons convey their instruction simply and directly: refreshingly conversational in tone, faithfully and knowledgably reliant on Sacred Scripture, and profoundly powerful in content, allusion, and spiritual consolation. Pastoral Sermons presents one hundred and eight superb examples of this excellent preaching. Covering nine discrete topics ("Our Father"; "The Temptations of Christ"; "The Sermon on the Mount"; "The Mystery of the Kingdom"; "The Harvest of the Cross"; "The Cross of Christ"; "The Eucharist"; "Feasts and Seasons of the Year"; and "St Paul's Gospel"), Knox fulfills his duty as a Christian teacher, instructing his listeners in the truths of the faith, the saving graces of the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), and the joyful message of Christ's own words and deeds.
Comparable only with Newman's Oxford sermons in their scope and brilliance-in the words of the volume's editor, Philip Caraman, S.J.-Ronald Knox's Pastoral Sermons is a peerless manual of meditation whose balanced and graceful instructions are certain to direct its readers toward that charity and freedom which characterizes the life lived in-and for-the Lord Jesus Christ.