Resurrected writers: Chesterton

The dead still speak
An occasional series by Maxwell Ryan

H

e was a large man in every way. He stood 6 feet 4 inches and weighed almost 300 lbs. He usually wore a cape and a crumpled hat, with a swordstick in hand, and had a cigar hanging out of his mouth. To some, he was also larger than life. And in literary and religious circles there is still disagreement about his place in history, even though he died more than 70 years ago (1936). During his 71 years of energetic and creative life he wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays, and several plays. He was a literary and social critic, historian, playwright, novelist, Roman Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer (he created the eccentric and lovable amateur detective, Father Brown). Though he wrote a number of volumes on philosophy he was always proud to remind people that he was first and foremost a journalist.

I am referring of course to Gilbert Keith Chesterton, one of the most prolific and multi-faceted of English writers within the last century. For many people today he has become the invisible man, though in his lifetime he was known as one of the most brilliant writers of his day, who unleashed a torrent of writing on a world that recognized his genius. As one of his editors wrote, “You may tap any subject you like, he will find a theme on which to hand all the mystery of time and eternity.” Malcolm Muggeridge pointed out that Chesterton had been more often proved right in his judgments than most of his contemporaries.

Two examples of his approach to writing suffice. He was known to write two articles at the same time, scribbling one to himself while dictating a completely different article to a secretary. His scholarship was indifferent though replete with insight. For instance, he was asked to write a biography of Thomas Aquinas. He had read Summa Theologica years before but did not refer to it. He dictated a biography that made a great Thomist theologian despair that he could never have written such a book.

Chesterton was born in London, England, in 1874, grew up in a middle class home and attended St Paul’s School and Slade School of Art and University College. For some time he vacillated between art and writing as his life’s work, and many considered it fortunate that the latter vocation emerged victorious, though he never abandoned his art, as evidenced by his pen and ink caricatures and sketches.

His legendary absent-mindedness revealed itself during his school days and became a source of amusement and amazement to his friends throughout the years. Chesterton often forgot where he was supposed to be going and would miss the train that was supposed to take him there. It is reported that on several occasions he sent a telegram to his wife from some incorrect location, writing such things as, “Am at Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?” to which she would reply, “Home.”

As a child he had little interest in religion, though despite his high spirits he was a serious thinker. As he grew older, he became an increasingly orthodox Christian and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1922. He is one of the few Christian thinkers who are equally admired and quoted by both liberal and conservative Christians, and indeed by many non-Christians. Chesterton’s love of life enabled him to be a joyous proponent of the faith that he accepted at the age of 48.

Reviewer Rodney Clapp writes, “Chesterton is relevant to our day on several fronts, not the least being his disarmingly good-natured defense of Christian orthodoxy in a world giddy with post-Christian ‘enlightenment’. It was Chesterton’s talent that he could simultaneously communicate the lofty mystery of Christian truth, and its urgent, gritty practicality.”

What does G. K. Chesterton have to say to Salvationists – and other Christians - of the 21st century? The quick reply to such a question is for those with inquiring minds to read Orthodoxy, which the author called his “sort of slovenly autobiography”. This volume, first published in 1908, is not easy reading, but it will reward the reader who perseveres. It is as able a defense of the Christian faith as is Surprised by Joy by C. S. Lewis, though it is stylistically quite different. Orthodoxy is to be considered a religious classic by many. Well-known Christian writer Philip Yancey said that if he were “stranded on a desert island … and could choose only one book apart from the Bible, I may well select Chesterton’s own spiritual autobiography, Orthodoxy.”

Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man contributed to C. S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity. In a letter to Sheldon Vanauken Lewis calls the book “the best popular apologetic I know”. In another letter he wrote “the [very] best popular defense of the full Christian position I know is G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.”

One who knew him said his life was dominated by two beliefs, “the rightness of the Christian faith and the wrongness of modern society”. Chesterton’s optimism was based in his certainty not that things would come right in the end, but that they had been right in the beginning. Therefore life was fundamentally good, to be enjoyed and praised as the work of a benevolent Creator. He had no time for the woolly thinking which claims that all religions are essentially the same. Chesterton’s writing may be somewhat dated and some will find him not easy to read, but he writes uncommonly good sense.

There are several biographies of Chesterton, one of the most accessible being The outline of sanity, by Alzina Stone Dale, published by Eerdmans in 1982. For those interested in varied views of Chesterton, among the best books is G. K. Chesterton, a half century of views, edited by D. J. Conlon and published by Oxford University Press in 1987, in which more than 60 writers talk about a man most considered to be a genius.

Among Chesterton’s major works are: Charles Dickens (1903); The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904); Heretics (1905); The Man Who Was Thursday (1907); Orthodoxy (1908); The Ballad Of The White Horse (1911) poetry; Father Brown short stories (detective fiction); The Everlasting Man (1925).

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a part-time chaplain in a Salvation Army hospital in Winnipeg, Canada and a copy editor of theRubicon.

2 Comments to Resurrected writers: Chesterton

1. This is a good series Colonel.
   Thanks for re-introducing us to some of the greats.
   To be someone who influenced the conversion of CS Lewis alone is enough of a success to take to the grave with you. Chesteron was an awesome figure to be sure.
   Dion
Dion Oxford on August 12th, 2007

2. I treasure Chesterton’s works and have a few in my personal library. His practical approach to describing and weaving the truths of the mystery of Christ is exceptional. Now I feel an urge to find his volumes within my shelves and re-read. Thank you for your highlight upon such a determined and generous scholar.
Jessie Irwin on August 15th, 2007

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