catapult magazine

“There is a great deal of similarity between popular fiction and the religion of the western people…the point is that a story is exciting because it has in it so strong an element of what theology calls free will….And Christendom has excelled in the narrative romance exactly because it has insisted on the theological free will.”

Gilbert Keith Chesterton in [i:ba50262e4f]Orthodoxy[/i:ba50262e4f]

I absolutely love this quote by Chesterton who is one of my favorite writers along with Lewis, Kreeft, Blamires, Schaeffer and Barrs.

What do you guys think of this quote?

I don’t think I’m as excited about it as you. What’s the context? Is Chesterton writing about free will of the author? of the characters? of the reader to come to their own conclusions on the author’s (godlike perhaps) intent?
What do you like about it?

Chesterton was very much against determinism in his writings, but he wasn’t anti-sovereignty. Part of it was that he was taking a jab at determinists, or maybe a more modern term would be hyper-Calvinists. He had dealt with people who took predestination to its extreme fatalistic conclusion, so in order to bring it back towards the middle (or try to) he often made a point to see the significance in man’s freedom of the will. I like this quote because I, for one, affirm both God’s sovereignty and man’s free will (how it works is a mystery) and I also am a fan of literature. I thought this was a very good observation that he made in that he showed how literature (like Milton or Dante) spoke to the will of man and the actions we take. This is one of the reasons why fiction speaks to people on a personal level. He was saying that fiction speaks to us because we identify with the freedom of the characters’ wills in the story and the consequences of their choices…

That is what I get out of it anyways, but as always it is open for other interpretations…

I think I like your explanation more than I like the quote.
Then again, it’s hard to get at the heart of a quote (especially of this nature) without context, author intention and the perspective or critique of an outside source.
Thank you.

I’ve enjoyed the GKC stuff (including fiction) that I have read.

He certainly enjoyed being a Christian…which is what I gather from his writings. And in that more civil day I heard it said that he was friends with HG Wells (the post Enlightenment unofficial bigamist and great sci fi writer) and friends with Bernard Shaw….another man of different faiths than his….Tho of course they disagreed with each others’ views of reality.

I guess if you like the story where the underdog, the victim suffers, seems totally & utterly defeated, but then triumphs over evil & rescues the captives (with an exciting sequel to follow in Part Two…the Return) …you have summarized the heart of Easter and the Next Coming….but also the main plot of some good detective stories (or..sci fi stories) also…