I jest, of course, but am completely serious when I thank the NOR and Chene Richard Heady for an excellent introduction to Ignatius Press’s newly published Volume 36 of The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton (Sept.).
My dirty little Protestant secret is that when upon occasion a lover of Chesterton (or O’Connor or Wilde or Newman or Pope) rises up from among the dime-a-dozen Lewis and Tolkien lovers that populate my classes, my heart warms a bit, and my esteem of such a student rises not imperceptibly with such near-certain assurance of said student’s good taste.
While the denominational partisan in me might inwardly cry, Why, oh why, do the Catholics have all the good writers? (the answers to which form the basis of an entire graduate course I teach), Dr. Heady’s fine review reminds me of at least some of the reasons. For it seems to me — as an outsider looking in — that it’s the long view offered by the Roman Catholic Church that informs the metaphysical insight, the understanding, and the appreciation of paradox, as well as the sheer optimism of Chesterton so keenly pointed out in the review. Dr. Heady himself reflects these Chestertonian characteristics in applying the insights of his subject to 21st-century concerns — notably, for example, the New Atheists who, as Heady points out, paradoxically affirm the notions of truth they seek to dismiss in their self-destructing efforts.
Reading this review as I did in the twilight of one of the most depressing presidential elections I’ve lived through, it was refreshing, too, to read of Chesterton’s “hope that the death of the state will be the birth of the family.” Such a belief, expressed, again, within the context of a long view, is enough to make me feel a good deal of Chesterton’s “pessimistic optimism.” And enough to make me feel more catholic — perhaps even a bit Catholic — too.
Karen Swallow Prior
Chair, Depts. of English & Modern Languages, Liberty University
Lynchburg, Virginia
This is ineed a pleasant and uplifting letter.
It is worth noting that while Dr. Prior makes the light-hearted distinction between small-c catholic and big-c Catholic, they are, in fact, the same thing. It is the “catholic” nature of truth, beauty and goodness (found in Chesterton and in other great writers) that makes the Church “Catholic”. There is one God, one faith, one baptism, “one Lord, one father of all”, and therefore one Church, one Body of Christ.
A “catholic” thing is a “Catholic” thing – the Body of Christ being our prime example.
Yes, Kevin. I agree. The letter is lovely, but I’ve noticed that Protestant tendency to love catholic while rejecting Catholic. It’s a little word game sometimes used to conceal a gray area in the honesty sector.