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The Well and the Shallows

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The first I knew of Chesterton's so-called "Catholic" books (written after his conversion in 1922) was their mention in Dale Ahlquist's G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense. What he wrote made me hungry to read them, which I eventually did in Volume III of Ignatius Press' series of Chesterton's Collected Works. While it's great bringing all that GKC back into print, I'd much rather have the individual volumes, so I rejoiced when The Catholic Church and Conversion came out as a paperback. Like Orthodoxy, it's a lively book with a dull title.

The second volume to escape on its own is The Well and the Shallows, which is actually a collection of essays from 1935, but which boasts a lot better title. I'd recommend "The Backward Bolshie" to anyone reading the sort of things said about Chesterton these days by Garry Wills, whom I consider to be talking out of his hat. Other than that, these essays stand poised between looking back at the Victorian era and forward to the threat of Hitler, whom Chesterton was one of the first to denounce. Taken together with his 1936 autobiography, they cast an illuminating ray on the literary and political figures of the day.

In the introduction, Chesterton says he thought of calling the book Joking Apart. But then, he rightly noted, people would take it as a joke. The light essay, in Chesterton's form, is virtually lost today, but keeping it light enabled him to tackle the heaviest problems of the day. He is almost thinking out loud, and certainly writing on his feet, as the turbulent events of the mid- '30s move the world closer and closer to confrontation and the brink of war. As these essays reveal, the world of seventy years ago uncannily echoes our own, and the timing could not be better for this book.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1937)wrote a collection of essays which are logical, clear, and prophetic. Chesterton had insight of the problems of 20th. century and predicted the disasters that were incubating in Europe and to a lesser degree in these United States. He diagnosed the problems of marriage and the family, the uncertain status of Protestantism, plus economic and social problems. Chesterton knew that the worship of the State and the glorification of force and violence could not solve any modern social and economic dislocations no matter how firmly Free Thinkers, Communists, Fascists, etc. passionately thought they could.

Chesterton's comments on easy divorce were thoughtful. He argued in effect that divorce which was supposed to be the exception had now changed in that the exception had become the rule. Chesterton denouced phony senstitivity parroted in newspapers and social pages. For example, he cited an example when a wife got sympathy because her husband's socks did not match the carpet. Another example was a wife's outrage over the color of her husband's necktie. The social commentaries actually took these childish protests seriously and expressed sympathy for such shallow, childish nonsense.

The book titled THE WELL AND THE SHALLOWS also had profound political essays. Chesterton agreed that the Fascists and Communists had some legitimate complaint against International Finance with its subsidies and political protection vs. blue collar workers and the middle class. Yet, Chesterton condemned Big Communism and Fascism for its worship of violence, class warfare, and dehumanizing solutions. Chesterton reminded readers that Pope Leo III (1878-1903) had already offered a practical, peaceful solution when he issued his statement titled Rerum Novarum which offered peaceful solutions and suggestions to the plutocratic wealthy and working classes. Yet, no one noticed.

Chesterton also railed against the hypocracy of the so-called leftists. Chesterton agree that the rise of Fascism, National Socialism, and Big Communism had valid criticisms of the corrupt poltical and economic status quo. However, Chesterton clearly alerted readers that the Fascists were condemned for using violence. Yet, when the Spanish Leftists used violence against innocent Spanish priests and teachers, there were all sorts of false justifications. Chesterton wryly showed that the Fascists were wrong in worshipping violence. However, when the leftists used Fascist violence against innocent people because of their religious status, there were no protests against such unreasonable violence and wanton murder of innocents.

Chesterton also showed insight into the fraud of Big Capitalism and Commercialism. One must know that these essays were written during the Great Depression. Chesteron mentioned a customer who complaint that razors did not shave, and the businessman responded that razors were not meant to shave but to sell. Chesterton remarked that Commercialism had perverted a sense of decency and religious concepts. The new religion urged the buying and selling of goods. Yet, Chesterton noted that the Bible reported that God made the earth and creatures and saw that they were Good and not goods.

Chesterton also had harsh criticism for "modern" "philosophy." For example, Chesterton noted that the Free Thinkers did not believe in Free Thought at all. These men argued that Materialism, environment, genetics, etc. determined men's behavior and thought without any concession to Free Will or actual Reason. In other words, Free Thinkers tried to argue that man's freedom to think and reason was a moot point which undermined the phrase Free Thinkers. Those who enshrined Reason next to Revalation, the Catholic Scholastics and Schoolmen, were actually the Free Thinkers who used reason debate, clear thinking, logic/reason, etc. to come to philosophical and religious conclusions.

Chesterton had no sympathy for the "New Psychology" or to phrase it more accurately, "Psycho-Babble." Chesterton condemned psychics for their false claims of seances, levitation, etc. Yet, these same "experts" who claimed such nonsense as seances and levitation condemned Catholics for acception the Ascension. The spokesmen for the "New Psychology" condemned Catholic priests for administrating the sacraments. They condemned the Catholic Church for its priesthood. Yet, these "experts" created an Aristocratic Elite with false claims of ESP, seances, etc. which no Catholic priest would ever claim.

Possibly some of best essays in this book and in other books written by Chesterton dealt with the Reformation and Protestantism. Chesterton was right when he argued that there was not and is not any consistent Protestant theology or philosophy. In fact, readers should know that the Protestant "Reformers" hated each other as much if not more than they hated Catholics. For example, during the Marburg Colloquy in 1529, Martin Luther and Zwingli in effect wished each other a Happy Go to Hell when they parted company. For all the complaints of Protestants of Popish influence, King Henry VIII of England was more Popish in trying to set the agenda of the Church of England than any Pope could hope for.
Jacob Burchart mentioned that the Protestant rulers set the religious agenda in their domains because of the animosity of the Protestant "Reformers" had for each other, and these secular rulers had to have religious "peace and quiet" to have political stability.

One of the best essays in this book dealt with St. Thomas More whom King Henry VIII had executed. This essay is a good case study of a man, St. Thomas More, who respected political authority but did not worship it. In other words St. Thomas More rejected what can be defined as Stateolotry. St. Thomas More rejected the Divine Right of Kings and knew that only God was divine. Those who wanted a State Church wanted God to be controlled by the state when rulers should be ruled by God. St. Thomas More refused to waver on this issue which cost him his life.

As previous reviwers so aptly stated, this book is as timely now as it was when it was first published just before Chesterton died. Chesterton writing syle is charming and yet thoughtful. Chesterton enjoyed confronting his critics, but he was never spiteful or hateful. Chesterton was not offended when he was teased about his weight, forgetfullness, dress, etc. Chesterton was offended when truth was attacked. This is good book and should be read to have a better understanding of a confusing "modern" world.

Ever since I learned that GK Chesterton was one of CS Lewis' favorite writers, I have become a huge fan of his books. It is amazing the foresight he had into the modern world and where it was heading - writing in the 1st half of the 20th century. Although I am not Catholic, it was interesting to read his defense of the Catholic Church and, with usual biting sarcasm, he not only made me think but solicited smiles and laughs along the way...

I have only read a handful of Chesterton's books and loved them, but really struggled with them sometimes because of the complexity and depth. They also can be harder for us "modern Americans" whose history and literature breath is weak (at least for me on 100-year old British politics). But this is a clearly written set of individual essays that most anyone will get 90% of what is said and love it. There is less historical trivia names and events that make many people lose the point being made in several other of his great works (tested many times when I read a page or two out loud). These essays (only a few pages long each) will all put context and fire to conversation on today's politics and life. Then you remind yourself he was writing in 1935 before WWII! It is a little scary to see his predictions come true (or worst) in our present day. He understood what makes the world tick, in his day and ours.

The book has been explained well in the above comments, so I won't repeat things here. Our Chesterton book club just finished discussing 'The Well and The Shallows' after about six months of pretty in-depth analysis. None of us thought it was "light" reading. This book should be understood in the context of his more apologetic books such as "The Thing" and "The Catholic Church and Conversion" where Chesterton gives great defenses of Catholicism directly. Here, however, Chesterton is defending himself against his progressive critics in the press, and he is defending the Faith against the ever-more secular world. "There is the one supremely inspiring and irritating institution in the world; and there are its enemies."

I think the main thing missing from the comments thus far is Chesterton's attack on the very source of all the ills that he believed was destroying European Civilization (a civilization built by the Catholic Church). He seems to blame everything from Communism to Atheism to Darwinism to Relativism to Secularism to Modernism to Progressivism to Individualism to Liberalism to Marxism to Hitlerism to Fascism to the new Paganism to Materialism to Capitalism to Socialism -- nearly every negative "ism" that has harmed the world -- on one giant "ism" at the source of it all. And that, for Chesterton, is Protestantism. That may sound like a huge leap, but Chesterton lays it out historically in fairly clear terms by the end of the book. At the end of the penultimate essay, 'Why Protestants Prohibit', Chesterton sums up the entire book, I think, in one simple sentence. Asked straight up by the BBC what he thought about Catholicism, Chesterton responds, "I did certainly divulge the secret that I thought it was true; and that, therefore, even great cultures falling away from it, in any direction, had fallen into falsehood." And that is just what he says the Protestant heresy has done. It has fallen away from Truth in thousands of directions. That one break in the Faith, Chesterton argues, was the onset of all the destructive, synthetic replacement philosophies that have been attempted ever since.

We should remember that Chesterton found a home for his great mind in one place. Only one thing gave him the intellectual emancipation he was seeking. He found true liberation within the walls of the Catholic Church. That cannot be overemphasized. He thought Catholicism was true. He defended the Church, human flaws and all, better than the Church defends herself. And that one "ism," Catholicism, is where he found truth. Outside of truth lies falsehood. "We have come out of the shallows and the dry places to the one deep well; and the Truth is at the bottom of it."

I can't say this book was as delightful as other Chesterton books. Just a little of his famous "wonder" is absent. These essays were written near the end of his life, during the rise of Hitler, and not long before another devastating world war that he saw coming; so it's easy to see why he felt a need to finally set a few things straight that had been misunderstood by his critics over the decades. Still, his thoughts on marriage, divorce, babies, birth control and attacks on the family, while covered more thoroughly in other books, are stated incisively here and must not be missed. Prophetic as always, G.K. Chesterton shows us that real "progress" is not possible apart from God.

At first glance this book is rather jarring. There is a vague theme and many of the references require knowledge of early 1900 British culture and politics, something I am blessedly ignorant of.

And the slams against Protestantism make for difficult reading for Protestants (a word on that later). I suppose his theme, since this is a collection of essays, is the Church is the well (deep truth) and everything else is the shallows (9). This book addresses a number of issues that would shape the 20th century (and indeed, write most of it in blood): Economics, relativizing of religious truth-claims, and Party politics.

Against the communist and socialist, Chesterton urges non-Utopian schemes and points out that man cannot be reduced to mere economics (interestingly, a criticism that can be made of libertarian capitalism). Against the capitalist Chesterton points out that if Communism reduces man to pure laborer, Capitalism reduces God's creation to a market. Against both Chesterton advocates his famous Distributism.

Chesterton points out how often he changed political views: or rather, he remained the same and political views changed. Reminds one of how useless "Party politics" really is. There is no "left-right" divide (56). That is an illusion to keep the haves above the have-nots.

Chesterton's thoughts on the Jews bear notice. People have accused him of being anti-semitic. What that word means is "something today's political Jews in the ADL do not like." Chesterton and Belloc simply pointed out the obvious. However, Chesterton did admit that Hitler's actions against the Jews were wrong (96).

Chesterton is right to point out an Anglo banking conspiracy that had as its goal the destruction of traditional society (which we see today). I don't think he realized how much Britain is really implicated in this.

Chesterton's main point in this book is religion. Truth be told, if this is his only argument for Catholicism, it is a poor one. It refutes today's Anglicanism and Lutheranism, but it does not prove Catholicism. However, Chesterton's larger points are good. While his myopia towards Rome is annoying (what about other, ancient traditions?), one should stop and ask, "Why is it for all the evident corruption in the church, the Roman church has not gone down the road of the mainline Protestants?" Another thought to consider, and this one is scary, why is it that even the most conservative and biblical and fervent Protestant denominations end up in the gutter (see the current debates in TEC and the Lutheran church)?

Chesterton also has good thoughts on how the Institutional church cannot be a conspiracy.