Of the fact and evidence of the supernatural I will speak afterwards. Here
we are only concerned with this clear point; that in so far as the liberal idea of freedom can be said to be on either side in the discussion about
miracles, it is obviously on the side of miracles. Reform or (in the only tolerable sense) progress means simply the gradual control of matter by
mind. A miracle simply means the swift control of matter by mind. If you wish to feed the people, you may think that feeding them miraculously in the wilderness is impossible—but
you cannot think it illiberal. If you really want poor children to go to the seaside, you cannot think it illiberal that they should go there on
flying dragons; you can only think it unlikely. A holiday, like Liberalism, only means the liberty of man. A miracle only means the
liberty of God. You may conscientiously deny either of them, but you cannot call your denial a triumph of the liberal idea. The Catholic Church
believed that man and God both had a sort of spiritual freedom. Calvinism took away the freedom from man, but left it to God. Scientific materialism
binds the Creator Himself; it chains up God as the Apocalypse chained the devil. It leaves nothing free in the universe. And those who
assist this process are called the “liberal theologians.”
This, as I say, is the lightest and most evident case. The assumption that there is something in the doubt of miracles akin to liberality or reform
is literally the opposite of the truth. If a man cannot believe in miracles there is an end of the matter; he is not particularly liberal,
but he is perfectly honourable and logical, which are much better things. But if he can believe in miracles, he is certainly the more liberal for
doing so; because they mean first, the freedom of the soul, and secondly, its control over the tyranny of circumstance. Sometimes this truth is
ignored in a singularly naïve way, even by the ablest men. For instance, Mr. Bernard Shaw speaks with hearty old-fashioned contempt for the idea of
miracles, as if they were a sort of breach of faith on the part of nature: he
seems strangely unconscious that miracles are only the final flowers of his own favourite tree, the doctrine of the omnipotence of will. Just in
the same way he calls the desire for immortality a paltry selfishness, forgetting that he has just called the desire for life a healthy and
heroic selfishness. How can it be noble to wish to make one’s life infinite and yet mean to wish to make it immortal? No, if it is desirable
that man should triumph over the cruelty of nature or custom, then miracles are certainly desirable; we will discuss afterwards whether they
are possible.
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.
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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, December 20, 2015
Excerpts from Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton, 52
Labels:
Chesterton,
G. K. Chesterton,
God's sovereignty,
liberty,
Miracles,
Orthodoxy
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