God and the Atom

The atomic bomb marked a catastrophic leap in the history of human achievement. Never before had a man-made instrument dealt out, in an instant, such death and destruction. Once done, it could not be undone. The leap was made; the atomic age begun. To live in this new age, a new spirit was required—a spirit that would prevent mankind becoming the destroyer of all worlds. The father of the atomic bomb himself, J. Robert Oppenheimer, perceived this need, calling for “radical changes not only in spirit, not only in law, but also in conception and feeling” between nations and peoples. And what are those changes? The priest, not the scientist, gives the answer. In God and the Atom, Monsignor Knox re-states the ever-ancient, ever-new principles of God’s revelation and commandments, and their application to the conditions of the atomic age.First published in 1945, amid the immediate aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, God and the Atom was one of the first theological considerations of the atomic age and the ramifications and risks of atomic weaponry and proliferation. To a world which refuses to let peace prevail, Knox’s work remains deeply—and tragically—relevant. Read more