Much vague and sentimental journalism has been poured out to the effect
that Christianity is akin to democracy, and most of it is scarcely strong or clear enough to refute the fact that the two things have often
quarreled. The real ground upon which Christianity and democracy are one is very much deeper. The one specially and peculiarly un-Christian idea is
the idea of Carlyle—the idea that the man should rule who feels that he can rule. Whatever else is Christian, this is heathen. If our faith
comments on government at all, its comment must be this—that the man should rule who does not think that he can rule. Carlyle’s hero may say,
“I will be king”; but the Christian saint must say “Nolo episcopari.” [I do not want to be bishop.] If the great paradox of Christianity means anything, it means this—that we
must take the crown in our hands, and go hunting in dry places and dark corners of the earth until we find the one man who feels himself unfit to
wear it. Carlyle was quite wrong; we have not got to crown the exceptional man who knows he can rule. Rather we must crown the much more exceptional
man who knows he can’t.
Now, this is one of the two or three vital defences of working democracy. There mere machinery of voting is not democracy, though at present it is
not easy to effect any simpler democratic method. But even the machinery of voting is profoundly Christian in this practical sense—that it is an
attempt to get at the opinion of those who would be too modest to offer it. It is a mystical adventure; it is specially trusting those who do not
trust themselves. That enigma is strictly peculiar to Christendom. There is nothing really humble about the abnegation of the Buddhist; the mild
Hindoo is mild, but he is not meek. But there is something psychologically Christian about the idea of seeking for the opinion of the obscure rather
than taking the obvious course of accepting the opinion of the prominent. To say that voting is particularly Christian may
seem somewhat curious. To say that canvassing is Christian may seem quite crazy. But canvassing is very Christian in its primary idea. It is
encouraging the humble; it is saying to the modest man, “Friend, go up higher.” Or if there is some slight defect in canvassing, that is in its
perfect and rounded piety, it is only because it may possibly neglect
to encourage the modesty of the canvasser.
Orthodoxy, first published in 1908, by G. K. Chesterton, is in the public domain, and available from Project Gutenberg. The previous post in this series is here. Thanks for reading! Read Chesterton.
Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
License
I have written an e-book, Does the Bible Really Say That?, which is free to anyone. To download that book, in several formats, go here.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
Sunday, November 01, 2015
Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 45
Labels:
Chesterton,
democracy,
G. K. Chesterton,
Orthodoxy,
Politics
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment