One of the great things about Chesterton is that he reminds us that we need ideals to live by, to strive for, to have as a goal. We frequently speak of teens and young people as being "idealistic" and then, somehow, that sort of wears off as we grow older. Why? Why should young people have the corner on ideals? We *all* need ideals.
A few years back, I had a minor revelation in my faith life. I discovered that if you just live your life telling yourself you are "ok" as you are, that you really are just giving in to all your sin. Yep, it's true that Jesus loves us just as we are, but then he calls us to become "like him." Jesus is a great ideal to try to live up to. And you don't become like him merely by trying *not* to sin, as good as that sounds. You have to "put on" the virtues, as St. Paul tells us.
Then, I suddenly became very interested in virtues. Which are really ideals. Which all leads me back to Chesterton.
Monday, January 23, 2006
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Here is one of GKC's earliest uses of the term "ideals" - over 100 years old but still insightful:
ReplyDelete"The ideals of the men of that period [the 18th century] appear to us very unattractive; to them duty was a kind of chilly sentiment. But when we think what they did with those cold ideals, we can scarcely feel so superior. They uprooted the enormous Upas of slavery, the tree that was literally as old as the race of man. They altered the whole face of Europe with their deductive fancies. We have ideals that are really better, ideals of passion, of mysticism, of a sense of the youth and adventurousness of the earth; but it will be well for us if we achieve as much by our frenzy as they did by their delicacies. It scarcely seems as if we were as robust in our very robustness as they were robust in their sensibility."
[GKC, Robert Browning, 11]
And for something more in tune with Nancy's comment, there is this (very strong medicine, indeed!):
"Now it is very right to rebuke our own race or religion for falling short of our own standards and ideals. But it is absurd to pretend that they fell lower than the other races and religions that professed the very opposite standards and ideals. There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better."
[GKC, The Everlasting Man CW2:253]
I don't care what the topic is, you can always find a suitable quote for it in The Everlasting Man. It is an inexhaustable mine of wisdom and good sense.
ReplyDelete"But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better."
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Gilbert calls us to a higher standard, because we know better. I think there is something on this in the gospel, as well.