The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: Christendon in Dublin, Irish Impressions, the New Jerusalem, a Short History of England, the Patriotic Idea, Explaining the English, London, What Are (Collected Works, Volume 20) [Paperback]

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (Author), James V. Schall (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898708540
• ISBN-13: 978-0898708547
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Six Stars!, July 20, 2005

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This review is from: The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: Christendon in Dublin, Irish Impressions, the New Jerusalem, a Short History of England, the Patriotic Idea, Explaining the English, London, What Are (Collected Works, Volume 20) (Paperback)

This 650-page behemoth contains some of the most passionate and lyrical non-fiction by GK that I've come across. His travel commentaries reel off so many inspired observations and insights on such a broad range of topics, it's almost impossible to summarize.

"Christendom in Dublin" is a real gem. While visiting Dublin to attend the Eucharistic Congress of 1932, GK waxes eloquent on conversion, the Eucharist as the essence of faith, and the singular truth of Christ he finds amid the incredible shapes and sizes of the Faith and the faithful. A couple quotes:

"There are those who tell us we must broaden our ideas, by which they mean disembody or discolour them, in order to make a universal religion for men...The truth is flatly the other way."

"And I sometimes wondered whether even political democracy would not be a little more practical if people prepared for the General Election as they did for the Eucharistic Congress, with prayer and penance rather than with publicity and lies."

"The New Jerusalem" is a poetic description of the city seen in the light of its awesome history, as well as a penetrating commentary on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and modern Europe.

"It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money."

"As for our own society, if it proceeds at its present rate of progress and improvement, no trace or memory of it will be left at all. Some think this would be an improvement in itself." How prophetic!

"A Short History of England", which contains no actual dates (!), shows GK at his absolute best when it comes to distilling general principles from a dizzying array of facts. His command of the facts is superb, and his interpretation, which stood in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom of the time, rings truer than ever and ought to be heard.

"The ninteenth-century historians went on the curious principle of dismissing all people of whom tales are told, and concentrating upon people of whome nothing is told."

Speaking of the existence of an external God and against the idea of faith as a purely interior phenomenon, he says, "I do not, in my private capacity, believe that a baby gets his best physical food by sucking his thumb; nor that a man gets his best moral food by sucking his soul, and denying its dependence on God or other good things. I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."

What is particularly helpful in this history is GK's accounting of England's great historical transitions--from barbarism to medieval society, from the Middle Ages to "Reformation", and from there to modern capitalism. He is unsurpassed in his ability to discern the subtle shifts in attitude and social convention that set the stage for monumental change.

Without doubt, one of the strongest non-fiction volumes in the entire Ignatius collection.