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Posted on 04/12/2013 11:07:31 AM PDT by don-o
Chesterton is perhaps the most articulate twentieth century practitioner of this Christian paradoxical imagination. He judges that a serious breakdown of the fundamental moral suppositions deposited by biblical faith and the classical tradition is underway and accelerating.
He believes that this declension is due to a loss of conviction in our culture about the reality of the Incarnation, that God truly became a human being in Jesus Christ with all the import that that has for human existence.
For Chesterton, the doctrine of the Incarnation is the hinge that holds together what is, for the Christian, a vision of the world that is essentially paradoxical. And he is astonishingly adept at employing this vision in his cultural criticism and Christian apologetics.
The Incarnation sheds light where sin deceives and despair darkens the human horizon. Sin causes us to experience spirit in opposition to matter, faith in conflict with reason, life defeated by death. But the Incarnation reveals these apparent contradictions as paradoxes.
(Excerpt) Read more at theimaginativeconservative.org ...
GKC ping
Read it all.
I’m a big Chesterton fan too. Love his book, ManAlive.
B
I'm just reading --- forcing myself to read --- an essay by an ex-Catholic-priest named Frank Cordaro (an anarchist peace activist in Iowa.) He has recently written an bitter article in the Des Moines Catholic Worker paper, castigating Catholic bishops for...
"...defending the Church's discredited teachings on human sexuality--- with its crass "sperm/egg" biological determinism hiding behind 'natural law'..."
The man is angry about Catholic Bishops for, he says, ignoring Peace issues (Palestine, Iraq, Drone War, etc) while concentrating on Sex issues (natural sex/gender, marriage, contraception, abortion).
We could argue that. We could rationally discuss it. But underneath that, he's irrationally angry about realities --- about male and female, about how people are begotten, are born, live, marry, beget, die --- embodied truths of human nature --- which he calls "crass" and blames on the Catholic Church (!)
He doesn't seem to believe that human beings are "incarnate", that there are truths (not "discredited teachings") about our embodied selves which give us a natural and reasonable perspective on what is good for us as humans.
There is a congruence between Natural Law and Divine Law -- because God is the Author of both --- which is why Catholics have always thought Natural Law is worth our attention.
It is dismaying that Catholic Worker movement is inconsistent to the point of incoherence on these issues, just mimicking the anarchist Left with a little frosting of God-talk.
Jesus, Incarnate Lord, have mercy on us.
Me too. I am always re-reading him.
G.K. Chesterton vs Clarence Darrow
THE MISER AND HIS FRIENDS BY GK Chesterton
Who Dares Attack My Chesterton? (Long)
Chesterton on the ties binding fathers, mothers, and children
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CONVERSION BY G. K. CHESTERTON, CHAPTER III: THE REAL OBSTACLES
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CONVERSION BY G. K. CHESTERTON, Chap. II, THE OBVIOUS BLUNDERS
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CONVERSION BY G. K. CHESTERTON, CHAP. I: INTRODUCTORY: A NEW RELIGION
Chesterton on Christmas
Table of Contents for "In Defense Of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton"
Chesterton and Saint Francis
[Why I Am Catholic}: A [Chesterton] Poem and a Prayer for Michaelmas
G. K. Chesterton: "Who is this guy and why haven’t I heard of him?"
How the Great Wind Came to Beacon House, Chap 1 of Manalive by G. K. Chesterton
Film and Audio Recordings of G. K. Chesterton
Chesterton on "The Human Family and the Holy Family"
Why I Am A Catholic by G. K. Chesterton
"The God In The Cave" | From The Everlasting Man (G. K. Chesterton) Part 1
Alternatives to Assigned Readings
Aquinas vs. Luther: A Brief Excerpt from Chesterton
Social Reform versus Birth Control
Do you still have the Chesterton Ping List?
Is Dale Ahlquist’s Chesterton show still airing on EWTN? I noticed that it was missing last Sunday. Anyone know?
Hopefully there will be a Chesterton revival. He ‘s more difficult to read than Lewis, but more profound (not that Lewis isn’t).
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