Heretics

I just started reading Chesterton's "Heretics" again. After getting in about seventy pages, I handed it off to my housemate who has yet to read it. It's a very good book, in which he blasts the "heretics" of his day, that is, those people whose philosophy differs from his own.

After he wrote it, George Bernard Shaw--who was a good friend of Chesterton's--chided him for giving no account of his own philosophy. After all, it is very easy to attack something for being wrong, but Chesterton himself point out that one must have a standard in mind. The reply was Chesterton's best, and most famous work, "Orthodoxy" which our confounded library does not have. Regradless, it is interesting to note that sometime between the two books, he converted to Catholicism.

What makes "Heretics" so fascinating--besides the brilliant style, charming wit and good humor--is it's timeliness. Though the references are out-dated--it is unlikely that many of today's readers are familiar with Kipling's philosophy, and though H.G. Wells's books are still read, his belief structure is perhaps less known--the heresies are still committed frequently.

I'll not recant the book, or even dwell on a whole lot of it. It would be a shame to spoil it for anyone who can take the opportunity to read this fascinating work. Instead, I will examine his premise, which is a very basic and seemingly obvious one. And that is this: each man is as orthodox as the Catholic Church--even if not as right--and those whose philosophies differ from that man are heretics.

The coarseness of the word "heretics" as well as the undesirability of "orthodoxy" might lead the reader astray. Yet, if any sensible man was asked about his view of the universe he would admit--perhaps cautiously and humbly--that his view was the right one. To think otherwise is to be guilty of moral cowardice, or foolishness. If one believes that he has found truth and will not say so, he is a coward. If a man does not believe that his view is correct, it would behoove him to find the correct view quite quickly.

Of course this all seems to ignore agnosticism. Admittedly so, for the agnostic has yet no view of the universe, and in honesty, he does not particularly concern me. That is certainly callous, but I will assuredly pray for the man to figure all of this out. We have all been, indeed are born as, agnostics, but at some point man must get off the fence and jump into the existential abyss or explore the confines of deism, based on the truth he has perceived in this short life.

But back to heretics. The ancient man understood all of this quite well. And while it is common to look with disdain upon our ancestors, one must remember that not only do we behave quite pathetically--two world wars in half a century for starters--but the same blood runs through us as well. The savage was out of line in burning the blasphemer on the stake, but he was right in calling him a blasphemer. If what a man, even our savage, knows about God and life and the world is true, another man, even an enlightened modern, would do best to check his philosophy at the door of the cave, at least in the savage's estimation.

The point has been made thoroughly and probably redundantly. It is always difficult to explain something that is readily obvious. Regardless, the point is now ready to be applied. Let us have no more of people who say that they are "spiritual, but not religious". This phrase irks me because it reeks of, with all due respect, complete idiocy.

I will disagree with the materialist because he is wrong, but I'll not invite him to get himselg a church because his view of the world does not require one. Yet when a man realizes that he has a soul--I think correctly--he must see this observation to its logical conclusion. Once one has leapt into deism, it is imperative to examine the nature of this diety.

If the churches of this world do not suit a man he owes it to himself to found one. Examine the nature of God, worship him as you see him and state your beliefs. In other words, become orthodox, and enlighten us poor heretics. To benignly state that you are not religious and leave it at that, is to live life dispassionately. Most humans would agree and deem that heretical.

It is of course well and good for me to hide behind the orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church. It is not very courageous perhaps, to stand with one billion other believers and shun the rest of the world. I do tend to think that the size of the fold speaks to the congruity and truth of the banner we march under, but that is not the main point. I am orthodox, precisely because I say so. This does not make me arrogant. However, it may make me wrong, and it would be good if you heretics could calmy tell me so I could straighten myself out.

One can be assured that the rest of the world needs to watch out. Chesterton may have left a large gap when his three hundred pound frame expired, but there are still some of us orthodox fellows left.

In any case, read his book. It is certainly thought-provoking.