G. K. Chesterton

The ball and the cross

Simon Elliott Stegall

The Ball And the Cross is about two Scotchmen, an atheist and a Catholic, who, due to certain irreconcilable differences, decide to fight a duel to the death. Unfortunately dueling is against the law, so the two champions are forced to make a run for it across the English countryside, avoiding the authorities and various philosophical types that try to stop them, in search of a place where they can kill each other peacefully.

It's a fun book, like most of Chesterton's fiction, and it's also profound, albeit a little heavy-handed on the symbolism (but we wouldn't read Chesterton if we didn't need a little of that). And after all the fun and various profundities, the feeling I am left with is the same from book to book when it comes to this author; I wish I understood Christianity the way that mirth-and-girth Gilbert did. To illustrate, I leave you with a quote:

'MacIan turned upon the Tolstoyian with a white face and bitter lip. “Sir,” he said, “talk about the principle of love as much as you like. You seem to me colder than a lump of stone; but I am willing to believe that you may at some time have loved a cat, or a dog, or a child. When you were a baby, I suppose you loved your mother. Talk about love, then, till the world is sick of the word. But don’t you talk about Christianity. Don’t you dare to say one word, white or black, about it. Christianity is, as far as you are concerned, a horrible mystery. Keep clear of it, keep silent upon it, as you would upon an abomination. It is a thing that has made men slay and torture each other; and you will never know why. It is a thing that has made men do evil that good might come; and you will never understand the evil, let alone the good. Christianity is a thing that could only make you vomit, till you are other than you are. I would not justify it to you even if I could. Hate it, in God’s name, as Turnbull does, who is a man. It is a monstrous thing, for which men die. And if you will stand here and talk about love for another ten minutes it is very probable that you will see a man die for it.”'

Make of it what you will.

The ball and the cross

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