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Why I love Chesterton
Of the many books I have read, one of the most influential was Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. The ideas that Chesterton presents in this book changed the way I perceive the universe. In Orthodoxy Chesterton defends his Christian worldview, and he does so with both wit and genius. The two ideas from this book that have most influenced my thinking are his apology of the Christian faith and his spirit of wonder about creation.
Chesterton recognized that Christianity is a rational faith and that there are a myriad of reasons to believe in it. Yet for all these reasons, the greatest and most convincing one of all is different than the rest. Chesterton writes of Christianity in his final chapter Authority and the Adventurer, “The thing has not merely told this truth or that truth, but has revealed itself as a truth-telling thing.” By this statement the large and merry journalist is saying that although every particular of Christianity cannot be proven, the religion shows itself to be true because it tells the truth. What is more, it does not merely tell the truth about some things; rather, it tells the truth about everything. At the time I read this idea it did not strike me as either particularly profound or important, but over time I began to understand both its profundity and its importance. Christianity does explain existence and it does so without error. While it took mankind until World War II to finally conclude that mankind is evil by nature, Christianity explained the sad human condition from the beginning. The philosophers searched for an accurate system of morality for thousands of years, but they need not have looked farther than Christ to find the perfect one. The world was already aged by the time Plato developed his archetypes, but if that great thinker had been acquainted with the Jewish religion in Palestine he would have discovered that the Christian God assumed the archetypes long before Plato ever thought of them. What is remarkable about Christianity is not that every its every detail can be proven, but that it explains the world perfectly. After I understood this principle I realized how indebted to Chesterton I am. With this one idea he had essentially dispelled my doubts about Christianity.
Another idea in Orthodoxy that has heavily influenced me is Chesterton’s sense of wonder. In the chapter Ethics of Elfland he writes, “Grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.” This idea was revolutionary to my thinking. I had always been a child who hated monotony, who complained about boredom and who had the short attention span characteristic of all humanity. Suddenly I was able too see the world with new eyes. Chesterton taught me to “exult in monotony” and to value the smallest things in life for every created thing, no matter how obsequiously commonplace, is valuable. Chesterton showed me that everything in nature is quite unnatural. Not only is nature beautifully fantastic, but also it may not have existed at all or if it did, may have existed very differently. When I understood this I was inspired to be grateful for everything on this earth, large or small, monotonous or novel—for all is precious.
Chesterton communicated many other ingenious ideas in Orthodoxy, but these two probably left the biggest imprint on me as a person. The first idea, that Christianity is true because it tells the truth, was a major factor in dispelling my doubts about Christianity. The second idea, that the world is valuable because it is both original and precious, taught me to be grateful for everything in this world. These two ideas changed the way I understand the world and for this reason Orthodoxy has probably had a bigger influence on me than any other book.
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| | Posted 1/9/2008 5:46 PM - 65 views - 3 comments
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