The official blog of the American Chesterton Society where we talk about anything Chesterton talks about or writes about; including everything and everything else.
"You should not look a gift universe in the mouth." GKC
Wow! A superb argument I do not recall having heard elsewhere: TMWWT is a Chestertonian argument demonstrating the need for revelation! What a topic for study. As you might expect, GKC gives a parallel argument in STA:
Or again, his [Aquinas'] argument for Revelation is quite rationalistic; and on the other side, decidedly democratic and popular. His argument for revelation is not in the least an argument against Reason. On the contrary, he seems inclined to admit that truth could be reached by a rational process, if only it were rational enough; and also long enough. Indeed, something in his character, which I have called elsewhere optimism, and for which I know no other approximate term, led him rather to exaggerate the extent to which all men would ultimately listen to reason. In his controversies, he always assumes that they will listen to reason. That is, he does emphatically believe that men can be convinced by argument; when they reach the end of the argument. Only his common sense also told him that the argument never ends. I might convince a man that matter as the origin of Mind is quite meaningless, if he and I were very fond of each other and fought each other every night for forty years. But long before he was convinced on his deathbed, a thousand other materialists would have been born, and nobody can explain everything to everybody. St. Thomas takes the view that the souls of all the ordinary hard-working and simple-minded people are quite as important as the souls of thinkers and truth-seekers; and he asks how all these people are possibly to find time for the amount of reasoning that is needed to find truth. The whole tone of the passage shows both a respect for scientific enquiry and a strong sympathy with the average man. His argument for Revelation is not an argument against Reason; but it is an argument for Revelation. The conclusion he draws from it is that men must receive the highest moral truths in a miraculous manner; or most men would not receive them at all. His arguments are rational and natural; but his own deduction is all for the supernatural; and, as is common in the case of his argument, it is not easy to find any deduction except his own deduction. [GKC, St. Thomas Aquinas CW2:434-5]
And, for those of you who lack the time to dig through the Summa, I shall reveal the reference GKC made:
Summa Theologica II-II Q2A4:
"It is necessary for man to accept by faith ... in order that man may arrive more quickly at the knowledge of the Divine truth."
Posts
Wow! A superb argument I do not recall having heard elsewhere: TMWWT is a Chestertonian argument demonstrating the need for revelation! What a topic for study. As you might expect, GKC gives a parallel argument in STA:
ReplyDeleteOr again, his [Aquinas'] argument for Revelation is quite rationalistic; and on the other side, decidedly democratic and popular. His argument for revelation is not in the least an argument against Reason. On the contrary, he seems inclined to admit that truth could be reached by a rational process, if only it were rational enough; and also long enough. Indeed, something in his character, which I have called elsewhere optimism, and for which I know no other approximate term, led him rather to exaggerate the extent to which all men would ultimately listen to reason. In his controversies, he always assumes that they will listen to reason. That is, he does emphatically believe that men can be convinced by argument; when they reach the end of the argument. Only his common sense also told him that the argument never ends. I might convince a man that matter as the origin of Mind is quite meaningless, if he and I were very fond of each other and fought each other every night for forty years. But long before he was convinced on his deathbed, a thousand other materialists would have been born, and nobody can explain everything to everybody. St. Thomas takes the view that the souls of all the ordinary hard-working and simple-minded people are quite as important as the souls of thinkers and truth-seekers; and he asks how all these people are possibly to find time for the amount of reasoning that is needed to find truth. The whole tone of the passage shows both a respect for scientific enquiry and a strong sympathy with the average man. His argument for Revelation is not an argument against Reason; but it is an argument for Revelation. The conclusion he draws from it is that men must receive the highest moral truths in a miraculous manner; or most men would not receive them at all. His arguments are rational and natural; but his own deduction is all for the supernatural; and, as is common in the case of his argument, it is not easy to find any deduction except his own deduction.
[GKC, St. Thomas Aquinas CW2:434-5]
And, for those of you who lack the time to dig through the Summa, I shall reveal the reference GKC made:
Summa Theologica II-II Q2A4:
"It is necessary for man to accept by faith ... in order that man may arrive more quickly at the knowledge of the Divine truth."
--Dr. Thursday