G.K. Chesterton's Heretics: Stand For Something

Last week I finished reading Heretics by G.K. Chesterton. I've held off writing about it until now since it's a dense book, full of ideas, and therefore takes time to digest. the book is a series of brief essays, most of which decry what is in Chesterton's opinion a heresy contemporary to the early twentieth century.

At times, that makes the book seem dated and confusing. Names that would have been familiar when the book was written are completely foreign to most of us modern readers. But what struck me more than the passages that have aged poorly is just how much of what Chesterton says is relevant to today.

He was combating modernism and many of the issues he has with it are only amplified in our post modern world. He is particularly alarmed by the shift from the pursuit of truth to the idea that there is no truth, no absolutes.

Commenting on so called progressives he writes, "Nobody has any business to use the word progress unless he has a definite moral creed and a cast-iron code of morals. Nobody can be progressive without being doctrinal" In other words, for all the post modern talk of progress the question remains: what exactly are we progressing towards?

That's a very relevant point for today. Not just for society in general but also for the church in particular. One of my great concerns with the Emerging Church is that while it (rightfully) recognizes the failings in an academic, study-first, program oriented approach to Christianity, it's already swinging too far in the other direction and favoring emotion and experience at the expense of doctrine.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis describes doctrine as a map of the ocean. If the modern church has spent too much time studying the map and far too little voyaging on the sea then I'm afraid that the post modern, emerging church is in danger of throwing away the map altogether, content tot be tossed about on the waves. Sure they're sailing on the ocean, sure they're progressing, but towards what?

God gave us doctrine in the Bible for a reason. Not so that we could use it to hide behind (as we've done), not so we can use it to replace experience with Him (as we've done), not because we should rely on it instead of Him for guidance (as we've done), but so He could use it to protect us, so He could use it to draw us into deeper experience with Him, and so He could use it to guide us in our journey.

I think for a lot of us, a book with a title like Heretics makes us cringe. It seems very judgmental and maybe in part it is. But for me, reading it was refreshing. Chesterton is saying what he believes and defending it as best he can. That's a quality in far too short supply today.

I'm no fan of using doctrine to wag my finger at someone or inform them they're going to hell. How we go about defending our beliefs matters and matters a great deal. God is no fan of self righteousness judgments. But truth matters. It matters a great deal. Christians have a duty to pursue, defend it and, in love, share it