Apologetics; Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936; Christianity -- Essence, genius, nature
Thus, the double charges of the secularists, though throwing nothing
but darkness and confusion on themselves, throw a real light on the
faith. It _is_ true that the historic Church has at once emphasised
celibacy and emphasised the family; has at once (if one may put it so)
been fiercely for having children and fiercely for not having children.
It has kept them side by side like two strong colours, red and white,
like the red and white upon the shield of St. George. It has always had
a healthy hatred of pink. It hates that combination of two colours which
is the feeble expedient of the philosophers. It hates that evolution of
black into white which is tantamount to a dirty grey. In fact, the whole
theory of the Church on virginity might be symbolized in the statement
that white is a colour: not merely the absence of a colour. All that I
am urging here can be expressed by saying that Christianity sought in
most of these cases to keep two colours co-existent but pure. It is not
a mixture like russet or purple; it is rather like a shot silk, for a
shot silk is always at right angles, and is in the pattern of the cross.
So it is also, of course, with the contradictory charges of the
anti-Christians about submission and slaughter. It _is_ true that the
Church told some men to fight and others not to fight; and it _is_ true
that those who fought were like thunderbolts and those who did not fight
were like statues. All this simply means that the Church preferred to
use its Supermen and to use its Tolstoyans. There must be _some_ good in
the life of battle, for so many good men have enjoyed being soldiers.
There must be _some_ good in the idea of non-resistance, for so many
good men seem to enjoy being Quakers. All that the Church did (so far as
that goes) was to prevent either of these good things from ousting the
other. They existed side by side. The Tolstoyans, having all the
scruples of monks, simply became monks. The Quakers became a club
instead of becoming a sect. Monks said all that Tolstoy says; they
poured out lucid lamentations about the cruelty of battles and the
vanity of revenge. But the Tolstoyans are not quite right enough to run
the whole world; and in the ages of faith they were not allowed to run
it. The world did not lose the last charge of Sir James Douglas or the
banner of Joan the Maid. And sometimes this pure gentleness and this
pure fierceness met and justified their juncture; the paradox of all the
prophets was fulfilled, and, in the soul of St. Louis, the lion lay down
with the lamb. But remember that this text is too lightly interpreted.
It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that
when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But
that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That
is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the
lamb. The real problem is--Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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