We have seen, in the first place, how indispensably, supremely necessary it is for us to know God—necessary for us even in order to know ourselves and to be ourselves and to fulfil the purposes for which we exist. We have seen too what sort of a knowledge this is—not an abstract, academic knowledge, but a knowledge which we have to live, a knowledge which must permeate our whole being and give unity, direction, purpose to all we think or say or do; that it is also a knowledge of a Person, a personal God; not the knowledge of an abstract science or system; that, nevertheless, if we are to know God we must have some sort of creed, some sort of dogma. Our minds are so made that knowledge cannot be conveyed to us or by us except through words, by stringing together ideas in sentences, formulas, propositions. A creedless religion is an impossibility. We must conclude, therefore, that if the knowledge of God is necessary for us, so too must be dogmas, creeds, doctrines. We cannot do without them.

We must now take our inquiry a short stage further. For we are no pragmatists. We cannot jump to the immediate conclusion that because dogmas work, because they are necessary to our mental make-up, dogmas and creeds are therefore true or even can be true; still less that the dogmas and creeds of the Catholic Church are true.