Book Review: Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton by Joseph Pearce

Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton by Joseph Pearce

This weighty tome (490 pages of text with another 32 of notes and index) covers the whole life of the great Catholic intellectual of the early twentieth century, Gilbert Keith Chesterton. He enjoyed debating from an early age, often discussing issues with his brother Cecil in their childhood (a habit that lasted). As he grew, Chesterton started writing prose and poetry, along with forming informal societies to discuss literature and sometimes even politics. His way of writing and discussing had two key characteristics. First, he used paradox and common sense often. Second, he used gentleness and charity with all his interlocutors. That's how he wound up being friends with George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells while fundamentally disagreeing with them. The book goes over both Chesterton's public career and a lot of his private life. Pearce had access to a lot of Chesterton's letters and other personal writing, a very large body of material.

Chesterton's journey of faith is also chronicled in a fascinating way. He starts as a searcher for truth coming out of the English Protestant background common to the late 19th century. His pursuit of truth eventually led him to becoming Catholic, though his trip was naturally slowed by the expectations of his family and friends who were less keen on Roman religion. His love for others and for truth made him cautious. When he did convert, he was quite certain it was the right decision. 

His brilliant writing style fills the book. There's plenty of quotes, some quite lengthy, giving the highlights of his writing career, showing both his wisdom and his innocence. His style is delightful even when it doesn't quite suit his subject matter. He wrote several biographies though he does not give them the typical historical reviews one expects. He gives more of an impression of the person, what they were like as individuals and how they affected Chesterton's world view. He looked for the greatness in his subjects, not for every last fact or detail of their lives.

This book has the tough balancing act of giving an impression of Chesterton's character and personality along with a detailed historical review of his life. Pearce does a good job presenting both. Chesterton's love of children and of home and hearth comes across along with his desire to present the truth, often in comical and paradoxical ways. Pearce's achievement here is clearly a labor of love, with a great deal of admiration and generosity toward his subject. It's a delight to read even if it is a long read.

Highly recommended to get to Chesterton's life and heart.

Book Review: The Hound of Distributism ed. Richard Aleman

The Hound of Distributism edited by Richard Aleman

In the early twentieth century, Catholic thinkers G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc advocated for social and political reform guided by Christian principles. They called it "Distributism" and based it on the Catholic idea of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity, in its most basic form, has social or community problems dealt with at the lowest level of society that can solve the problem. A local doctor can and does deal with a variety of common maladies, there's no need to go to a larger institution to get basic care or prescription medicines. Such a system results in better and more personal care for people without a lot of bureaucracy, delay, and waste. In fact, if government agencies are not involved in the solution, so much the better. Locally-run food banks are better than federally-run food stamps.

The other Distributist principle is identifying the basic unit of society. In Capitalism, the basic social unit is the individual, whose needs are paramount and whose prosperity is the focus of the system. Wealth and property can be concentrated in the hands of a few individuals if they are the most clever, hard working, or organized. In Socialism, the State is the basic social unit. Wealth and property are owned and managed by the central government for the benefit of citizens who are expected to contribute as they are able. For Distributists, the basic unit of society is the family. An individual cannot constitute a social unit and the state is not a necessary institution. Families can exist more or less independently, though groups of families create greater economic potential by allowing groups to focus on individual goods or services that they produce. The first society people experience is the family, a very formative and influential time that cultivates attitudes for life.

A great deal of admiration is held for the guilds of medieval Europe. Professionals would band together to help each other by providing resources and common standards and expectations, creating fine craftsmanship in medicine, arts, construction, etc. Decentralized authority and ownership is the ideal of Distributism. Also, the workers own their own tools and have care of their own products, giving those workers personal dignity and proper self-assurance. Such an ideal (owning the tools of labor) can be found today in co-operatives and in employee ownership through stock incentives. Remnants still remain and can be revived in modern society.

The authors of the various essays admit that a Distributivist system will not be perfect but claim it will be much better than either Socialism or Capitalism. Some essays are more persuasive than others especially as they are applied to specific situations like banking, farming, and education. The implementation is tricky since it requires a larger cultural shift in attitudes towards wealth and responsibility. This book winds up being a call for that shift.

Recommended--this provides a good overview of Distributism and a fine effort to pull it into contemporary society.

Book Review: Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

In an unconventional biography, G. K. Chesterton looks at the personality of Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order who lived in the late 1100s and early 1200s. Chesterton's professed aim is to make Francis more accessible to people who do not know anything about him. He does not give the standard biography's history of the man within his own world. Chesterton makes reference to Francis's time and also Chesterton's time, almost in equal measures. He presents the universal truths and the particular character of Francis, how both have persisted through the eight hundred years after his life ended (Francis died in 1226). 

Francis was a romantic in a medieval sense--he admired the troubadours of his time and was drawn to military service as a way to be a hero, a righter of wrongs or defender of those in need. He was a bit disillusioned with soldiering and worked for his father, a cloth merchant. His desire to help others led him into conflict with his father, getting to the point where Francis renounced his father's goods, threw off his clothes, and went out into the world a pauper. He was in the ruins of a church when he heard a voice asking him to rebuild the church. Francis took the request literally and started gathering stones and begging for resources to restore the building where he heard the voice. His life surely seemed odd to a lot of people but he did have a few acquaintances join him in his life of begging and working to restore the Faith among the Christians. Love and joy were central to Francis's work, leading him into an extraordinary life.

Chesterton relates these and other incidents in Francis's life with a lot of commentary about how various people in Chesterton's own time would understand them. Chesterton brings out the unique worldview of Francis as a contrast to how others (then and now) see him. He gives a good idea what Francis was like and what motivated him in doing the amazing things he did.

Chesterton's style is very witty in both senses of the term, intelligent and funny. He has a playful writing style, with paradoxes and puns helping to bring out the points he makes. The book is a delight to read and I look forward to rereading it, though I should try out more of his many other works first.

Recommended.

Book Review: Saint Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

Saint Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

Most biographies run through the story of someone's life in chronological order, from birth to death. Sometimes, the era in which they were born or lived is described at the start, to give a setting. Often, the impact of their life on history or people is at the end, justifying the importance of writing the biography in the first place. Chesterton has found a third path for his biographical sketch of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican teacher and writer from the 1200s who has had a lasting impact on Catholic theology and philosophy. 

This biography starts with a comparison of Saint Thomas with Saint Francis of Assisi. Both were friars in new mendicant orders, Francis having died the year Thomas was born. Both sought to renew Christian piety in Christendom. Francis's Franciscans used humility and service. Thomas, as part of the Dominicans, used intelligence and education. They had different paths but the same goal, bringing people deeper into a Faith that had become shallow and stultified. 

Chesterton uses the various famous events of Thomas's life, like fighting off a prostitute with an iron from the fire or disrupting the king's feast by shouting "That will settle the Manichees!", as launching points to discuss what prompted those actions. Chesterton delves into how his contemporaries see such things in contrast with how Thomas's contemporaries saw those same things. Thomas himself had a third way of looking at those. Chesterton shows the character, the humility, and the simplicity of Thomas and how that character could be mistaken (then as now) for stupidity or aloofness. Aquinas's humility covers a great many of his excellences, clouding the vision of people who knew (or nowadays claim to know) him well.

The book ends with a comparison of Saint Thomas with Martin Luther, another monk who had a lasting impact on Christendom, though it is more of a contrast than comparison. Aquinas had faded into the background of history and theology for a long time, only to have his own renaissance in the 1800s and 1900s as Catholic scholars and ecclesiastics renewed their interest in his writings. Thomas has become an important intellectual figure, being referenced at least sixty-one times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church produced in 1992. 

Chesterton has a delightful command of the English language, being able to craft paradoxes and puns as he is making his points. The text is joyful to read. It was written for his contemporary audience with plenty of references to popular figures who are much less known nowadays--how many people know the atheistic outlook of H. G. Wells or even the Aquinas biography written by Fr. D'arcy? From context, a reader can figure out what Chesterton means or, at least, the direction he is aiming at. He's almost poetic in his prose.

Recommended, though you might want to supplement with a more conventional biography like Louis de Wohl's fictional The Quiet Light (which is historically reliable) or James Weisheipl's academic biography. 

This book is discussed on episode #299 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Check it out!

Book Review: Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

Saint Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton takes on a challenging task in writing a biography of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis was beloved in his own life time, so even the earliest sources are bound to exaggerate (if not make up) stories. Or at least skeptics can assume so. And Francis's life was well over five hundred years ago leaving plenty of time for legends and misconceptions to grow. How can a modern, interested person get a true understanding of the man with so many obstacles in the way?

Chesterton flies over such hurdles by several methods. His first and least obvious solution is to eschew the typical biography's strictly historical retelling of someone's life, where they start with his birth on such and such a date at a certain place and recite all the famous historical and personal events up to his burial on such and such a date at a certain place. Instead, Chesterton focuses on a few key events in Francis's life and meditates on how those events reveal Francis. In an early event, he was working for his father as a cloth merchant, negotiating with a purchaser while a beggar was also asking Francis for alms. Trying to please two supplicants at the same time was impossible for Francis though he clearly wanted to. When he was finished with the merchant, he turned to help the beggar who had left. Francis left his market stall (with presumably a lot of valuable stock unattended) to hunt down the beggar in the narrow byways of Assisi and give him the money he had just made. Chesterton points out that Francis always treated everyone equally, as a brother, whether they were from a high or low station. He didn't play favorites, he was a true egalitarian. The incident also shows his unconcern for material things. Many other incidents are handled with the same depth and reflection.

Chesterton also avoids the ambiguities and misconceptions about Francis's life by looking at the world as it was when Francis lived. Many modern people cherish Francis as the harbinger of the Renaissance--a man in love with nature and unconcerned with personal possessions. He's considered a Flower Child and a proto-communist. Chesterton argues that Francis came immediately after the time known as the "Dark Ages" but those times were only "dark" in the sense of Europe being besieged by the paganism of Rome and the perpetual barbarian invasions. Paganism had finally been overthrown by Francis's time; the barbarians had settled down to become locals and Christians. Monks no longer had to live in cloisters where they kept learning alive. Francis's friars could live "on the road" as it were, relying entirely on the generosity of others for food and shelter. His call appealed to many in his day but clearly it couldn't be heeded by all or society would collapse. His love of nature sprang from a simplicity of life that accepts the world with wonder. He's fascinated by the God-given glory of animals, not just by the animals themselves. His context gives him a different view from what we might casually think today.

Chesterton writes for the modern reader who is uninformed yet curious about this romantic and fantastic character. Chesterton sets aside the skeptic's doubt (if the reader denies the supernatural is even possible, Francis will forever remain inexplicable) and assumes the inquirer's wonder (the reader is open to explanations beyond his or her own personal experience). Chesterton himself was in such a position before his conversion to Christianity and thus is possibly the best author to tackle St. Francis's biography in this way. He gives a sense of Francis's life and the sanctity he had on a level few of us experience. Francis was a true lover of God and men and lived out that love with a sense of humor and self-denial that will always fascinate the casual observer and may transform those who strive to look more closely.

This book is an unusual, fascinating, and well worth your while.

I was inspired to read this by that great podcast, A Good Story Is Hard to Find, and somehow have managed to read it before the episode posted! I may treat myself to ice cream.

Book Review: Brave New Family by G. K. Chesterton

Brave New Family: G. K. Chesterton on Men and Women, Children, Sex, Divorce, Marriage & the Family edited with an introduction by Alvaro de Silva

In this collection of poems, quotes, essays, excerpts, and one fictional story, Alvaro de Silva gives the reader an overview of Chesterton's thoughts on family and home life in his own words. The texts are entertaining and thought-provoking. Chesterton has a gift for paradox. For example, much has been made of the freedom of women in the workplace rather than the enslavement at home. Home is seen as a prison where mothers are slaves to their husbands and children. Chesterton laughs off this charge by showing the freedom of home makers, who can indeed make their own rules and manage things as they want without outside interference. At the office, there's always a boss to satisfy, a schedule to stick to. Holidays are infrequent--nice weather doesn't mean everyone can work outdoors or go to the park instead of staying at their tasks. The home life is true freedom--the home maker can set the dress code, the meal time, the menu itself.

The home is more important than the office as well, since the product, new people, is much more important and much more complicated than any widget imaginable. Human beings come in a great variety, even in when found in small groups of three or four or six or eight. Dealing with them as people with their own ideas and dignity is a tough but vital skill learned by living in close quarters day by day. It's one thing to accept someone as "different" for a few hours each day at work, but to live with them is a richer and more meaningful (and more difficult and challenging) experience.

Chesterton also comments about the roles of men, women, and children with regard to each other. The final section of the book presents a few writings on Christmas and the joyful paradox of celebrating the model family, who was in fact homeless on this occasion, in our homes. We are called to be like that family, to stay together under trying conditions, because we are bound together by a love and commitment more profound and lasting than any workplace or government can command.

 The book provides a nice sampling on Chesterton's thoughts and style. Highly recommended!

Sample Quote:

The modern writers who have suggested, in a more or less open manner, that the family is a bad institution, have generally confined themselves to suggesting, with much sharpness, bitterness, or pathos, that perhaps the family is not always very congenial. Of course the family is a good institution because it is uncongenial. It is wholesome precisely because it contains so many divergencies and varieties. It is, as the sentimentalists, say, like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy. [pp. 42-43]