There are many things that this book is not. It is not a world history textbook; rather, it is a book centered around broad ideas. Although Chesterton does touch on religions in Asia and South America, it is particularly clear that his acquaintance with Eastern religion and society is rather limited. The focus of the book is on Western history, as centered around the Mediterranean and Rome, as the location in which Christ would appear.
The first few chapters of the book are devoted to exposing illogical and foolish ways that Chesterton’s contemporaries generally thought about prehistoric, or “cave” men. He also touches briefly on one of the supposed “missing links” between primates and men, exposing its illogic, but this is not a book to read for a thorough debunking of evolution or of the various “missing links” scientists have found. The next several chapters discuss and categorize different types of beliefs; Chesterton places almost every human belief that has been labeled as religion either into the category of mythology (which he identifies as having a healthy or “sane” side and a demoniac side; pagan religions tend to fall into one or the other, though there is some potential for overlap) or philosophy (all Greek philosophers, and the teachings of Confucius and Buddha). That, with the addition of Chesterton’s take on some historical events, like the Punic Wars and the fall of Rome, is the first half of the book.
The second half of the book specifically concerns the appearance of Christ and Christianity. Especially at the beginning of this Part II, Chesterton is at his scintillating best: he abounds with catchy paradoxes that express profound truths. He then goes on to discuss some overall patterns in church history, like the church’s stand against heresy, and the pattern in which the church is always revived just when it seems about to die out.
As I’ve already mentioned, this book is not a systematic or scientific rebuttal of evolution, and I also felt that his understanding of Eastern religions was not a strong point. He also occasionally takes a view that I really cannot agree with. However, where Chesterton really shines is in the way he brings out the good and healthy qualities of paganism (who, after all, doesn’t love Greek and Norse mythology?); he shows how paganism attempts (but fails) to fill a natural need or longing, and how the incomplete ideas of both paganism and philosophy are made complete through Christ. It is a book that identifies broad ideas and patterns in history. As such, it is extremely thought-provoking, and it made me see certain historical events in a completely different light. In particular, I will never think of the Punic Wars in the same way after reading this book.
Overall, the book is not without faults, but there were also some aspects of it that were really well-done and even, at times, moving. It is most definitely food for thought.
shade of dae (post: 1415644) wrote:Finished The Winter's Tale by Shakespeare. This wasn't one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, if only for the ending. [spoiler] Hermoine's sudden revelation that she wasn't actually dead all of those 16 years, but was pretending to be a statue seemed rather cheap trick for making the play have a happy ending. [/spoiler]
If I recall correctly, that's a hotly contested issue:
[spoiler]I can't recall his specific arguments, but my Shakespeare professor very firmly and convincingly maintained that it is an actual miracle and resurrection, not a shallow deception. Comedy is seen as having a U-shaped plot in which things get bad before they get better]The Winter's Tale [/I]fits that archetype better than any other Shakespearean comedy, because things become so very bad (Hermione actually dies), and so the upward movement of the resolution is much more dramatic, and stands out much more clearly, by way of contrast. If nothing else, the story is far more satisfying if you believe that it is a miracle; also, it seems rather hard, and inconsistent with their character, for Hermione and Paulina, to conspire together to keep Hermione away from her husband for 16 years when (if I recall correctly) Leontes had repented long ago. Incidentally, this is my [former] professor's favorite Shakespeare play because of the way that its U-shaped plot--the descent into tragedy and death followed by the reversal, renewal, and resurrection in the denouement--so closely mirrors the central Christian narrative: creation, fall, redemption; Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection; every believer's death to self and life through Christ.[/spoiler]
Critics' comments on the same subject:
[spoiler]"Whatever led Shakespeare to construct the scene in which Hermione comes to life, he has provided us with a rare moment . . . a common experience of wonder and, as some critics would have it, miracle. The wasteland of tragedy is behind. . . . Suffering and death are overcome by a penance that is efficacious and by a life ever renewing." (David Bergeron)
"No one would question the central importance of faith in the comedies, the faith in love demanded of the characters and the poetic faith required of the audience; but when Paulina tells Leontes before the unveiling of Hermione's 'statue' that 'It is required you do awake your faith,' she means more than his faith in love and our faith in incredible comic plots. She means 'faith' in the sense of her possible namesake, St. Paul: a creative, almost magical, power which, in the terms of this scene, positively brings Hermione back to life." (Howard Felperin)
"Nor is it just a reversal of tragedy; rather tragedy is contained, assimilated, transmuted; every phrase of the resurrection scene is soaked in tragic feeling, and the accompanying joy less an antithesis to sorrow than its final flowering. . . . The Bible has been an influence; so have classical myth and Renaissance pastoral; but the greatest influence was Life itself." (G. Wilson Knight)[/spoiler]
Just to give you a different perspective.
This is probably some monumental feminist thingy (I'd actually never heard of the book before, though supposedly it's a classic), and I don't like it one bit so far.
:)
