g. k. chesterton

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) is an influential and prolific Christian writer of early 20th Century England. He's close to intellectuals and artists of his days such as George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and Bertrand Russell and an ardent Christian faith defender. One classic book of his that affects many Christian thinkers to come--one of them none other than C. S. Lewis, another great prolific Christian writer of latter half 20th Century--describes how he came from a pagan and agnostic youth to developing a personal, positive philosophy that turned out to be orthodox Christianity, hence the title "Orthodoxy."

I bought the book almost 6 months ago and never really had time to read it until recently. It is not a page-turner I'll say. It's brain twisting and highly intellectual, if the not-so-plain writing style hasn't mixed you up already. Yet you sense the deep thoughts and sharp wits and great humor right beneath, that he's trying to explain things serious and legitimate in a fun and paradoxical way. I began to enjoy it half way through the book, and going back sometimes to earlier chapters for second reading gave me more pleasure and better understanding than the first time around.

In Chapter Two, titled "The Maniac," for example, he argues the definition of what is sane and what is insane like this: 

There is a notion that imagination, especially mystic imagination, is dangerous to man's mental balance... but imagination does not breed insanity, exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do... Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion... The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.

And "the madman's explanation of a thing is always complete and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory... that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large... There is such a thing as a narrow universality; there is such a thing as a small and cramped eternity; you may see it in many modern religions."

Then he explains why materialist philosophy is so limiting even though it claims to be liberating from God/spiritual dominant thinking:

The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe. But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle... The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as the sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen... even a touch of the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane.

On egotism: It is possible to meet the skeptic who believes that everything began in himself... those seekers after the Superman who are always looking for him in the looking-glass, those writers who talk about impressing their personalities instead of creating life for the world, all these people have really only an inch between them and this awful emptiness.

In conclusion: "This chapter is purely practical and is concerned with what actually is the chief mark and element of insanity; we may say in summary that it is reason used without root, reason in the void. The man who begins to think without the proper first principles goes mad; he begins to think at the wrong end." What then keeps men sane? "Mysticism keeps men sane... The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic... He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of today) free also to believe in them... The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. The determinist makes the theory of causation quite clear, and then finds that he cannot say "if you please" to the housemaid. The Christian permits free will to remain a sacred mystery; but because of this his relations with the housemaid become of a sparkling and crystal clearness."

He then uses some symbolism and analogy to explain the difference between Buddhism and Christianity: Buddhism is centripetal (向心), but Christianity is centrifugal (離心): it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed forever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms forever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its center it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers.

"The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travelers." I really like that!

* Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches and weighing around 290 lb. On one occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw: "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England." Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it."