G. K. Chesterton on the Passing of Protestantism

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 42, 25 October 1923, Page 17

G. K. Chesterton on the Passing of Protestantism

Taking the expression ‘‘Protestant Dogs” out of its context, anti-Oatholic writers of various kinds have seized upon a phrase in Mr. G. K. Chesterton’s address at the Birmingham National Congress and have waxed indignant over it quite unnecessarily. This will be apparent to anyone who read the report in the Catholic Times. In replying to an article by Mr. James Douglas in the Sunday Express, Mr. Chesterton not only sets his critic right on this particular point, but also gives'some very good reasons for his belief that Protestantism is as dead as a door nail. Mr. Chesterton writes: . I am sure my old friend Mr. James Douglas will believe that I have read his remarks about me without annoyance, though perhaps not altogether without amusement. I will not discuss the delicate personal question of whether I am a bondman, a vassal, a mouthpiece, a Homunculus (whatever that may be), or even an echo. About the general charge of enslavement by a superstition I will only say one thing. . It is indeed not a very new or original charge. Mr. Douglas says it a great many times; but I seem to have heard it a good many times before that. I should be disposed, if I might use so bold and original a metaphor,- to describe it as an echo. But the only general thing ' I will say about it is this. It is absurd to apply it to any convinced convert, because it is Telling the Whole Story Backwards^ Anybody would see this in any other case. Suppose somebody said to a sincere Socialist, “Ah, you belong to the 1.L.P., and that is why you are obliged to say the poor are oppressed by capitalism.”' What would he reply? “Dear but bewildered comrade,” he would answer, “I could see for myself that the poor were oppressed, and that was why I joined the 1.L.P.” Suppose we said to an international idealist, “It’s only because you belong to the League of Nations Union that you have to say that war must be averted somehow.” “Idiot,” he would reply affectionately, “it’s only because I realised, that war must be averted that I joined the League of Nations at all.” So in my ow T n case, it is useless to tell me that I have to think these things true because I , am a Catholic, when I only became Catholic through finding out that they are true. . There are indeed parts of the creed I accept because they are parts of the creed; and the philosophy of that acceptance I am quite prepared to defend if . the question is raised. But it is not the question that Mr. Douglas raised. He wrote only about two historical propositions; first, that the Protestant movement is dead, and second, that if Luther and the Pope repeated their difference to-day, the world would be on the side of the Pope. - " . v Historical Facts. I believe both statements to be simply historical facts. Long before I became, a Catholic, or dreamed of becoming a Catholic, I realised that they were historical facts. If I lost my faith to-morrow, I should still regard them as historical facts, __ - In truth Mr. Dougles himself proves that Protestantism is dead. Protestantism is so completely dead that even those who boast of being Protestants have entirely forgotten what it was.. Of course, the attack on Rome is not dead. Only it is no longer the Protestant attack, any more than it is the Donatist or the Catharist attack. Julian was not a Protestant when he worshipped Apollo, but he .was as much a Protestant as most modern men. Mr., Douglas says he is a Protestant; but ho will permit me to inform him that he is nothing of the sort. Protestantism was a positive and powerful attack on the Church on certain definite grounds; and they are not the modern grounds. It attacked Rome for certain clear and plain reasons: and they are* the very contrary of the modern reasons.,. ■ ' j " ,'/' . .For instance, Protestantism ; objected to Purgatory. Protestants insisted on nothing but hell for the wicked some of them insisted on nothing but hell for the good,'

if they were not also the elect. . Anyhow, they insisted that there could be no future life of progress and hope - for sinners. >V:;'.-'Z ' Z-Z ' __ Go Out Into the Street: and see how many people you can find who are shocked at the notion of a future life of progress and hope. It is probably the only sort of future life any of; them . will accept it all. .. Protestantism demanded hell without purgatory, The modern world is more likely to demand purgatory without hell. • ! _ Protestantism objected to ritualism; that is to the spiritual use of art and beauty. Talk to twenty people in a drawing-room, and see how many of them object to the spiritual use of art and beauty. Even the sects that are the heirs of the Puritans are becoming Ritualists. I could extend the list with any number of examples, but I will conclude with the special one cited, that of Luther and the Pope. Mr. Douglas agrees with Luther because he has entirely forgotten what Luther said. Luther was not the first man to defy the s Pope; a long succession of Luthers in every age have done so. But Luther, like the rest, was interested in the particular' idea about which he differed from the Pope. It was the idea of salvation by faith and the futility ,of good works for that end. Luther said, in plain words, that nothing but a theological belief could help us to Heaven. The Church said* that our ordinary efforts to be kind or brave or useful to society would also help us to Heaven. Is it saying a word too much .to say that, in that quarrel, the whole modern world would be against Luther? Applying the Fable. I may add that there was nothing in my speech, as delivered, of what is implied by talking at large about Protestant dogs, as if I had expressed personal contempt for all Protestants. I merely applied Goldsmith’s fable about the dog who died of .biting the man, and the mad dogs mentioned were merely all the wild theories that have troubled Christendom from Manicheanism to Mormonism. The truth is that there are two simple reasons why Protestantism seems to most of us to be at once the first a fid the final revolt against Rome, whereas it was only one of a series of Heresies that have appeared and disappeared in turn. The first reason is the inevitable imaginative disproportion of present and past. We happen to live at the end of the Protestant period, and not of the Arian or Alibigensian period. The other reason is the political tyranny with which Protestantism originated. It began with despots claiming Divine right and aristocracies seizing public wealth and power. And these were, able to segregate the heresies into separate nations, and keep whole societies as much in the dark as Mr. Douglas is about the real religious history of Europe. —Catholic Times (London). ’ -— ; ———. ; — Sacred Heart College Scholarships - The attention of the head teachers of our Catholic primary schools is drawn to the advertisement appearing in our present issue, announcing- the date of the Sacred Heart College Scholarships Examination, Auckland, These scholarships are well worth striving for, as they are worth £6O a year and are tenable for three years with ; a possible extension even to four years. ’ - 7' ~— <X* • There are some faint resemblances which may in some degree help to give an idea of Trinity in Unity. The fountain, the stream, the river, the sun, the ray, the light, the ray falling upon the water and reflected, by it. But there is a danger that these images should mislead' rather than lead; and the only safe position is that 1 of humble faith.” _ ;.'V x ;■