Darkness Visible: A Christian Appraisal of Freemasonry

Walton Hannah

[Darkness Visible] “alone deals conclusively with the matter of whether or not Masonry is a religion”.
Stephen Knight’s best-selling analysis of Freemasonry, The Brotherhood.


As a practising Christian, is Freemasonry compatible with one’s duty to Jesus Christ? That is the question which the Rev. Walton Hannah, then a Church of England clergyman (and subsequently a Catholic priest), set himself to answer with the publication of Darkness Visible in 1952.

Darkness Visible contains the entire and authentic text of the Masonic ritual of the first three degrees and of the Royal Arch. Hannah wrote this book to substantiate his conviction that for a quasi-religious organisation such as Freemasonry to offer prayers and worship to God but exclude the name of Jesus Christ demonstrates its incompatibility with Christianity.

Since Darkness Visible was first published, the accuracy of the author’s transcription of Masonic rituals has never been questioned, no intelligent answer to his case has ever been forthcoming, and the book continues to sell strongly among Masons and non-Masons alike.

Every Christian denomination which has seriously studied Freemasonry has declared it incompatible with the Gospel – with the exception of the Church of England.

The accuracy of the rituals printed in Darkness Visible was confirmed to the Synod of the Church of England in 1987 by Commander Higham, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England.