The Catholic Church and conversionChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Religion
The Catholic Church and conversion
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Conversion -- Catholic Church
In short, the story of these sects is not one of straight lines striking
outwards and onwards, though if it were they would all be striking in
different directions. It is a pattern of curves continually returning
into the continent and common life of their and our civilisation; and
the summary of that civilisation and central sanity is the philosophy of
the Catholic Church. To us, Spiritualists are men studying the existence
of spirits, in a brief and blinding oblivion of the existence of evil
spirits. They are, as it were, people just educated enough to have heard
of ghosts but not educated enough to have heard of witches. If the evil
spirits succeed in stopping their education and stunting their minds,
they may of course go on for ever repeating silly messages from Plato
and doggerel verses from Milton. But if they do go a step or two
further, instead of marking time on the borderland, their next step will
be to learn what the Church could have taught. To us, Christian
Scientists are simply people with one idea, which they have never learnt
to balance and combine with all the other ideas. That is why the wealthy
business man so often becomes a Christian Scientist. He is not used to
ideas and one idea goes to his head, like one glass of wine to a
starving man. But the Catholic Church is used to living with ideas and
walks among all those very dangerous wild beasts with the poise and the
lifted head of a lion-tamer. The Christian Scientist can go on
monotonously repeating his one idea and remain a Christian Scientist.
But if ever he really goes on to any other ideas, he will be so much the
nearer to being a Catholic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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