Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Oft Overlooked - And He Should Not Be
GK Chesterton is one of the best Christian writers of the last two or three centuries. He is being considered for sainthood and often overlooked:
Why do we close ourselves off to truth so? Why do we let our affiliations stand in the way of what is most important?
Chesterton is one of those author's that ought to be in any serious Christian's lexicon. You will not be tainted by his Catholicism, you will be enhanced by his love of Christ. Or do you, as we so often accuse Catholics, love your affiliation more than your Lord?
Chesterton lexicon
He was as witty as Wilde, as original as Joyce, and as clever as Kafka. Yet he remains an icon to far too few, partly because he spoke and wrote as a Catholic. In the final years of his life Chesterton predicted that the absolutes of right and wrong would become blurred, religion publicly condemned, that we would care more for animals than babies and we would worship sex while mocking love. We would, he said, be governed by whim and fashion. “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around." He was, quite clearly, not only a genius but a prophet.I find it interesting that he is often never mentioned in protestant circles and when he is, it is usually only among the mainlines. I find it fascinating that his Catholicism would cut off this man's extraordinary insight from so many that need it, and agree with it. I find it extraordinary that we are still fighting out the reformation hundreds of years later.
Why do we close ourselves off to truth so? Why do we let our affiliations stand in the way of what is most important?
Chesterton is one of those author's that ought to be in any serious Christian's lexicon. You will not be tainted by his Catholicism, you will be enhanced by his love of Christ. Or do you, as we so often accuse Catholics, love your affiliation more than your Lord?
Chesterton lexicon
