Orthodoxy
By: G.K.
Chesterton
Chapter 4
Review: The Ethics of Elfland
Chapter 5
Review: The Flag of the World
I.
Introduction in Defense of Everything
II.
The Maniac
III.
The Suicide of Thought
IV.
The
Ethics of Elfland
V.
The
Flag of the World
VI.
The Paradoxes of Christianity
VII.
The Eternal Revolution
VIII.
The Romance of Orthodoxy
IX.
Authority and the Adventurer
Chesterton's five pre-Christian basic attitudes
P1. The world does not explain itself. It is
at first glance astonishing, even in its regularities.
"Here is the peculiar perfection of tone
and truth in the nursery tales. The man of science says, 'Cut the stalk and the
apple will fall'; but he says it calmly, as if the one idea really led up to
the other. The witch in the fairytale says, `Blow the horn and the ogre's
castle will fall'; but she does not say it as if it were something in which the
effect obviously arose out of the cause. Doubtless she has given the advice to
many champions, and has seen many castles fall, but she does not lose either her
wonder or her reason. She does not muddle her head until it imagines a
necessary mental connection between a horn and a falling tower.... [The
scientific men, on the other hand,] feel that because one incomprehensible
thing constantly follows another incomprehensible thing the two together
somehow make up a comprehensible thing" (pp. 56-57). "This elementary
wonder, however, is not a mere fancy derived from the fairy tales; on the
contrary, all the fire of the fairy tales is derived from this. Just as we all
like love tales because there is an instinct of sex, we all like astonishing
tales because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of
astonishment" (pp. 58-59).
P2. The world is like a work of art. It has a meaning.
"The strongest emotion was that life was as
precious as it was puzzling. It was an ecstasy because it was an adventure; it
was an adventure because it was an opportunity" (p. 60).
"This was my first conviction; made by the
shock of my childish emotions meeting the modern creed in mid-career. I had
always vaguely felt facts to be miracles in the sense that they are wonderful:
now I began to think them miracles in the stricter sense that they were wilful"
(p. 66).
P3. The world is beautiful and admirable in its design despite its defects.
"The goodness of the fairy tale was not
affected by the fact that there might be more dragons than princesses; it was
good to be in a fairy tale. The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt
grateful, though I hardly knew to whom" (p. 60).
P4. The proper form of thanks for the world is some form of humility and restraint. (Doctrine of Conditional Joy.)
"The true citizen of fairlyland is obeying
something he does not understand at all. In the fairy tale an incomprehensible
happiness rests upon an incomprehensible condition. A box is opened, and all
evils fly out. A word is forgotten, and cities perish. A lamp is lit, and love
flies away. A flower is plucked, and human lives are forfeited. An apple is
eaten, and the hope of God is gone" (p. 61).
"Such, it seemed, was the joy of man,
either in elfland or on earth; the happiness depended on not doing something
which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why
you should not do. Now, the point here is that to me this did not seem unjust.
If the miller's third son said to the fairy, `Explain why I must not stand on
my head in the fairy palace,' the other might fairly reply `Well, if it comes
to that, explain the fairy palace' ... And it seemed to me that existence was
itself so very eccentric a legacy that I could not complain of not
understanding the limitations of the vision when I did not understand the
vision they limited. The frame was no stranger than the picture. The veto might
well be as wild as the vision; it might be as startling as the sun, as elusive
as the waters, as fantastic and terrible as the towering trees ... For this
reason (we may call it the fairy godmother philosophy) I never could join the
young men of my time in feeling what they called the general sentiment of revolt"
(p. 62).
P5. In some way all good is a remnant to be stored and held sacred out of some primordial ruin.
"Every man has forgotten who he is. One may
understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any
star. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; but thou shalt not know thyself. We are
all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have
all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality
and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our
life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and
ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forgot"
(p. 59).
Some questions to
ponder.
Chapter 4:
1.
What is the point of
this chapter? “We have all forgotten who
we really are.” The wisdom of the
nursery (Elfland) is superior to the wisdom of this world.
The
primary feeling we have is that the world is a strange yet attractive and is
best expressed in fairy tales.
2.
What are the
"battlefields" of this chapter? (hint: "magic" vs.
scientific fatalism, the poetry of limits vs. the boredom of endlessness, and
humility vs. pride).
Magic vs. scientific fatalism: Without the magic of the fairy tale, the
magic of life disappears in a morass of strictly rational, naturalistic facts,
theories, propositions, experiments, and arguments. The fairy tale frees us
from the law-based, unchangeable world of the scientific fatalist, where
explanations are everywhere but wonder is lost. http://journeytothesea.com/chesterton-fairy-tales/
The
world is a startling place and could have been quite different, as opposed to
the idea that the world is predictable and couldn’t have been any other way.
We
should be modest and submit to a “queer kindness” rather than indulge in
limitless reach and expansion. (Maybe
he’s meaning that to be happy we must accept the limits placed upon us (example
morality) instead of the “permission” the modern thinker gives us to do
whatever we can imagine (which is ultimately destructive)
3. What lessons do
we learn through fairy tales?
The world is a place of wonder, magic, and danger
The doctrine of conditional joy (there is always a rule one must
follow in order to be happy
Life
is a story which implies a story teller
4.
What are the paradoxical
truths of Jack and the Giant-killer, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast? Existence is so eccentric a legacy itself
that I shouldn’t complain of not understanding the limitations of the vision
when I did not understand the vision they limited.
Jack: Pride, the hoarding of this world’s goods that in essence
are not ours, and how eventually, by the whim of even a child, the hoarding
leads to death.
Researching various fairytales for their allegorical value as
morality tales. Ancient fairy tales are
being re-written because at face value we see the lessons as outdated and
actually "bad." If one takes
the time, however, to look deeper the original moral was the best. Instead of reinterpreting Jack and the Beanstalk and determine Jack was a thief and the giant was
good the original moral had to do with the giant being a hoarder of wealth and
someone who has isolated himself from humanity in his greed. Jack personifies the whim of fate that
destroys the giant and takes his hoard.
Not dissimilar to the parable Jesus told of the rich man who stored up
all of his wealth and then "that night he died." Thanks G. K. Chesterton. I love fairytales. --the Ethics of Elfland
Cinderella: the slipper was glass to signify that C receives
happiness but the happiness of this world is brittle and fragile (life is as
bright as a diamond but as brittle as a window pane).
Beauty: that something must first be loved in order to be lovable. The free will offering of love is not because
someone earns it but simply because they exist.
5.
How does this chapter
answer the classic question, "Did God make laws just so we can break them?" God did not make laws so that we might break
them but that we might discover Him (truth) by the limits we agree to abide
by.
“I’m saving you for something greater when I tell you no.”
6.
Why is the question,
"why is there evil the wrong question" Because it misses the whole
point of existence. The right question
is “why is it that good is so good?” It is even more difficult to answer than
the other one, but it is the one worth contemplating.
Chapter 5
1.
What is the point of
this chapter? (the theme "loyalty of life" answers the dilemma of
Chapter 3)
Christian
happiness is based on the fact that we don’t really belong in this world. (If we accept the fact that this life is a
gift and we don’t really belong here and accept the limits set on us here we
will solve the dilemma of our current age.
The insanity of modern thought is the dilemma of chapter 3.
2.
What are the
"battlefields" of this chapter?
The liberal theologian vs. the orthodox theologian: the “loose and latitudinarian” modern philosophy that seeks to
assure us that everything is all right and that we
are right where we should be is, ironically, depressing. But traditional Christianity that tells us we
are in the wrong place brings us tidings of comfort and joy. The Doctrine of the fall is a source of hope
and a reason to sing.
There is an echo here of the question asked in the
introduction: “How can we contrive to be
astonished at the world and yet at home in it?
But there is a twist here. We already
have this feeling of the world being a strange place even though it is
familiar. Our home is not our home. The longing in us is that we are made for
something better.
The Programmer vs. the Artist
Creation is not a machine, but a work of art.
By creating us, god did not enslave us, but rather set us free. “God had written, not so much a poem but
rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been
left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.
3.
What is the difference
between an optimist and a pessimist and which one is right?
Neither is right. Instead,
Chesterton speaks of his view as patriotism.
“Primary loyalty”
We do not leave our house because it is miserable. The world is the fortress of our family, with
the flag flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is the less we should
leave it. The point is not that this
world is too sad to love, or too glad not to love; the point is that when you
do love a thing, its gladness is the reason for loving it, and its sadness a
reason for loving it more.
“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved
her. Transcendental patriotism--- To be
able to hate the world enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it
worth changing.
4. How do we answer the criticism,
"Christianity is hopelessly out of date?"
“You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed
on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays.” Truth doesn’t depend on a calendar. Truth depends on being true. A man can believe in any miracle in any age.
5. And again, what is paradox?
“The
mere pursuit of health always leads to something unhealthy.”
“A woman loses a child even in having a child. All creation is separation. Birth is as solemn a parting as death.”
“I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I myself was
at once worse and better than all things.”
“Christianity is “at peace with the universe and at war with the
world.”
The basis of Christian happiness is based on ….the Doctrine of the
Fall!
So many more questions
but I doubt we will get through these.
Bee
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