G. K. Chesterton ( 10 of 64 )
Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle It is often said with a sneer that the God of Israel was only read more
Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle It is often said with a sneer that the God of Israel was only a God of Battles, "a mere barbaric Lord of Hosts" pitted in rivalry against other gods only as their envious foe. Well it is for the world that He was indeed a God of Battles. Well it is for us that He was to all the rest only a rival and a foe. In the ordinary way, it would have been only too easy for them to have achieved the desolate disaster of conceiving Him as a friend. It would have been only too easy for them to have seen Him stretching out His hands in love and reconciliation, embracing Baal and kissing the painted face of Astarte... It would have been easy enough for His worshipers to follow the enlightened course of Syncretism and the pooling of all the pagan traditions. It is obvious indeed that His followers were always sliding down this easy slope; and it required the almost demoniac energy of certain inspired demagogues, who testified to the divine unity in words that are still like winds of inspiration and ruin, [to stop them]. The more we really understand of the ancient conditions that contributed to the final culture of the Faith, the more we shall have a real and even a realistic reverence for the greatness of the Prophets of Israel. As it was, while the whole world melted into this mass of confused mythology, this Deity who is called tribal and narrow, precisely because He was what is called tribal and narrow, preserved the primary religion of all mankind. He was tribal enough to be universal. He was as narrow as the universe.
When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove read more
When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove the paint that had poured into his sleeve.
I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.
I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its read more
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
People generally quarrel because they can't argue.
People generally quarrel because they can't argue.
There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.
There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.
Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.
Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.
Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, read more
Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate thing, like pain or a particular smell.
Continuing a series on God and the human condition: That Jones shall worship the "god within him" turns out read more
Continuing a series on God and the human condition: That Jones shall worship the "god within him" turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon -- anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.
