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September 15, 2006
Hey Dr. Thursday
Nat. Cath. Rep.'s John Allen compares Pope Benedict to Chesterton.
By the way, I am not comparing Benedict and Chesterton on a personal level. Chesterton was irascible and curmudgeonly; Benedict, on the other hand, is unfailingly gracious, polite, and kind. As a personality type, he's closer to Emily Post. Yet Benedict breathes the same air of Christian enlightenment as Chesterton. His approach to modernity is neither the craven assimilation that Jacques Maritain described as "kneeling before the world," nor the defensiveness of a "Taliban Catholicism" that knows only how to excoriate and condemn.
Posted by Thomas A. on September 15, 2006 at 01:29 PM | Permalink
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Comments
"Curmudgeonly and irascable"? I wonder if he means Belloc. Oddly enough Belloc and Chesterton were two separate people, or three, if you count GKC twice.
Even if the description is distorted or inaccurate, it is hardly bothersome - after all GKC loved telling stories which deprecated himself!
He sure was fat - and he loved to call attention to it - "he was the most courteous man in London, for he could offer his bus seat to three ladies!"
Or the time they were digging up the streets and some neighbors came to the workers and said "Mr. Chesterton can't write" and they replied, "yes, we know."
Or perhaps the discussion refers to another Gilbert Chesterton - somebody with the same name, like the two, three, or four Isaiahs who wrote that book of the Bible, or the Darrylls in the Newhart show. (hee hee)
And yes, GKC had real enemies - like Shaw or Wells - but GKC thought of them as friends, was ALWAYS polite with them, and indeed they considered him their friend too:
At a lecture, GKC was asked: "Is George Bernard Shaw a coming peril?" and replied, "Heavens, no. He is a disappearing pleasure." [Ward, GKC, 590]
Or consider this letter from Wells:
47 Chiltern Court, N.W.I.
Dec. 10, 1933
DEAR OLD G.K.C.
An "Illustrated London News" Xmas cutting comes like the season's greetings. If after all my Atheology turns out wrong and your Theology right I feel I shall always be able to pass into Heaven (if I want to) as a friend of G.K.C.'s. Bless you.
My warmest good wishes to you and Mrs. G.K.C.
H.G.
[Ibid 604-5]
I am far too young to have known GKC personally, but I will admit to having read his books. It is GKC's steadfast following of Jesus Christ, the Everlasting Man (yes, even in debate) which reveals him and his wife as exemplars of heroic virtue.
I am a strong proponent of their Cause. May Gilbert and Frances intercede for journalists, bloggers, and all of us!
Posted by: DoctorThursday | Sep 17, 2006 2:44:21 PM
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