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Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy - On change
Identifier
006371
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Orthodoxy – G. K. Chesterton
Can he hate it enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing?
Can he look up at its colossal good without once feeling acquiescence? Can he look up at its colossal evil without once feeling despair?
Can he, in short, be at once not only a pessimist and an optimist, but a fanatical pessimist and a fanatical optimist?
Is he enough of a pagan to die for the world, and enough of a Christian to die to it?
In this combination, I maintain, it is the rational optimist who fails, the irrational optimist who succeeds. He is ready to smash the whole universe for the sake of itself.
The source of the experience
Chesterton, G KConcepts, symbols and science items
Symbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Heart failure and coronary heart diseaseSmoke inhalation