Review: Greybeards at Play

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Rating: ★★★

Author: G. K. Chesterton was a devoutly Catholic journalist, poet and novelist of the early 20th century. His most apt nickname is “The Prince of Paradox.”

Full Title:  Greybeards at Play: Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen, Rhymes and Sketches

Genre: Poetry, humor.

Overview:

Greybeards at Play is Chesterton’s first published book. He published it in 1900 at the ripe age of 26, so “greybeard” is used with tongue in cheek. This kind of dichotomy or paradox is a major pattern that marks his entire writing career, and looms large in almost every book he wrote. Aging and youth is also a favorite theme of Chesterton in his prose and poetry, used, for instance, in the introduction to The Man Who Was Thursday:

The world was very old indeed when you and I were young.

Meat:

The four poems play on philosophical themes and mock, to some extent, the high-faluting learning that he probably encountered during his London education. (Supposedly, Chesterton’s alma mater had the highest rate of Oxbridge admissions in the country.) This quick book makes fun and relaxing reading and the illustrations make it a treasure from Chesterton’s early career.

The whimsical monochrome illustrations accompanying the poetry will remind some of children’s books like those of Shel Silverstein, but the poetry is not really for children, hence the title.

If you have enjoyed Chesterton’s Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900) or Poems (1915), you will likely enjoy a quick romp through Greybeards at Play, although Greybeards is not as serious as most of his other poetry. If you enjoy the humor in his poetry and the lilt of English “doggerel,” you could also take a peak at Wine, Water and Song, which is all doggerel.

Bones:

These poems are fun, but the book goes by fast, and they are not Chesterton’s best poems (as reflected in the rating).

When I first read the Kindle edition of this book, I wondered at the brevity of it. The word count is only 1675. The reason is that the illustrations are missing in some editions. Chesterton himself created these illustrations, and as far as I know this is the only book he illustrated. He had taken classes at Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), focusing on illustration. If you do read this book, make sure you find an illustrated edition, such as the free HTML version on Project Gutenberg.

5 MUST-READ Inspirational Stories of Apostolic Missions

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Missionary biographies are, in one sense, a dime a dozen. Thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of Christians have held that title in some capacity since the days of the Moravians, and hundreds have published their own stories in English alone. In another sense, I believe that, despite their commonality, missionary stories are worth their weight in gold, and I collect and read all of them that I can; I would say the exception is when their stories are not worth reading.

But there are some missionary stories that give us a lens into a greater work of Christ in history. The apostle Paul said that he disposes the times and places of men and women for the purposes of the glory of his kingdom, but seldom are we able to see such obvious evidence of his sovereignty as when the gospel message brings transformation to an entire culture. If that is our subject of study, we can do no better than to begin with the following five stories of national and cultural transformation.

1. Uganda

Outside influences in Africa were, from the beginning, most strongly felt along the coastlines. After David Livingstone led to an explosion of missions work in Africa, Uganda became a major beachhead. Alexander MacKay was among the most famous of the Christian workers there; James Hannington, appointed Anglican Bishop of East Equatorial Africa, was martyred on his arrival to Uganda (or Buganda), leading British Christians to respond by sending even more Christian workers there.

Books: Pilkington of Uganda (C. F. Harford), The Last Journals of James Hannington (ed. E. C. Dawson), Uganda’s White Man of Work (Sophia Fahs).

2. Fiji

Fiji, like Uganda, is a story of national revival. Like Uganda, it is also the story of a place that was organized into chiefdoms, and it was not always clear who held what territory. James and Mary Calvert were at the storm-center of a national revival that overtook Fiji when the chief who ruled much of the islands chose to become a Christian.

During their lifelong stay in Fiji, Mary Calvert boldly challenged the age-old custom of wife-burning at the death of a patriarch. She and others put themselves in danger to save the lives of other women who would have been killed in the funeral celebrations of their husbands, thus playing a key role in the ending of a dark and ancient custom.

If you haven’t heard this thrilling story, Vernon’s Dawn in Fiji is a must-read. If you prefer a book with more facts and details, Rowe’s James Calvert of Fiji gives the best account that I have found.

Books: James Calvert of Fiji (Rowe), Mary Calvert (Rowe), Dawn in Fiji (R. Vernon).

3. The Karen peoples of Myanmar

The story of the Judsons themselves carries interest far beyond their status as the first American missionaries. Right through from their shaky beginnings—when they committed to overseas work, there was no agency to support them—they amply vindicated the title of “missionary” by doing apostolic work that has impacted Myanmar (then Burma) for two centuries.

This story, first told in Edward Judson’s masterful biography of his father, was re-popularized for twentieth-century readers by Don Richardson in his bestselling book Eternity in Their Hearts; however, there is much more to the story than Richardson’s quick survey. After meeting a liberated slave, Adoniram Judson heard that the Karen people would be receptive to Christ’s message of forgiveness. Little did he know that two centuries later, millions of Karen people would consider themselves Christians because of this one meeting.

Readers of this story will think it no coincidence that the first American missionaries stumbled into a people group so utterly primed for the gospel of Christ. The Karen people had unique myths and customs that pointed to a future message that would bring them freedom. Wylie gives the fascinating details of these pre-Christian myths in her classic book, The Gospel in Burma.

Books: The Gospel in Burma (Wylie), The Life of Adoniram Judson (Edward Judson), Eternity in Their Hearts (Don Richardson)

4. The Huaorani people of Ecuador

The Huaorani became the dinner conversation of the entire Western world after they speared five missionaries to death on a remote riverside in 1959. Those five men had come, fully aware of the Huaorani’s violent tendencies, hoping to make peaceful contact and eventually share the gospel with this people. After all five were martyred while venturing for the gospel, in another stunning turn of events, their surviving family members, Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot, were able to accomplish that dream of sharing the gospel with them.

The End of the Spear tells the continuing story in the 1990s, when God called Steve Saint and his family back to the jungle to serve where the people that had killed his father. Steve saw the Westernization and the dependence that had crippled the Huaorani, and he has spent the past 25 years working to give indigenous peoples independence and freedom through both the gospel and education.

Books: The End of the Spear (by Steve Saint), Through Gates of Splendor (by Elisabeth Elliot), The Journals of Jim Elliot.

5. The Motilone people

Unlike many authors who gain traction through mainstream publishing, Bruce Olson has remained utterly outside the limelight. His wonderful biography begins with his own conversion and his family’s harsh disapproval. Led specifically to reach the remote Motilone people, Bruce ended up in Colombia, disowned by his family, unknown to any sending agency, and unable to communicate even a basic greeting in Spanish. The miraculous story of how, after years of patience, he was able to find the remote Motilone people, learn their language, and bring them the gospel, is one that is better told in the book itself.

Originally titled For This Cross I’ll Kill You, Bruce’s autobiographical story of bringing the gospel to the Motilone brought him a hailstorm of criticism for his unusual tale in which he acted as a missionary apart from any denomination or agency. The same criticisms have been resurrected after the death of John Allen Chau in 2018. But God calls each of us to walk the unique path that he gives us, and wisdom will be finally justified by her children. I, for one, think that Bruce’s story is remarkable evidence of the hand of God in our day.

Books: Bruchko (Bruce Olson).

Review: What I Saw in America

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Rating: ★★★★

Author: G. K. Chesterton was a devoutly Catholic journalist, poet and novelist of the early 20th century. His most apt nickname is “The Prince of Paradox.”

Genre: Non-fiction, travel, essays.

Overview:

What I Saw in America (1922) is a long book of essays, first published in 1922, mostly about America and English-American relations in the wake of World War I. They were written during and after a lecture tour in the United States. Chesterton includes a few funny anecdotes from his travel but otherwise avoids any details concerning his trip—that is to say, this is by no means a travelogue; it is a book of essays reflecting on his time in America.

To cover this rather lengthy book, I will have to divide the themes into headings. There are four topics in What I Saw in America: 1) American culture; 2) understanding foreign cultures in general (and what is today known as “culture shock”); 3) American politics; and 4) international unity efforts (then called “internationalism”)

Chesterton on American Culture

The first chapter (“What Is America?”) sets the tone for the whole book and is probably its most important chapter. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t enjoy the rest of the book. In its title, Chesterton hearkens back to Crevecoeur’s famous Letters from an American Farmer, published in 1782, in which he asks the question, “What Is an American?” Crevecoeur’s conclusion:

The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence.—This is an American.

Chesterton’s conclusion in this chapter is not far off:

America invites all men to become citizens. (p. 8) . . . [America] is making a home out of vagabonds and a nation out of exiles. (p. 14)

Chesterton continues along this line in two important later chapters, “The Spirit of America” and “The Future of Democracy.”

He makes many other general statements about American culture and work ethic. Here is another (from “The Spirit of England”):

The Englishman is moody. . . . In America there are no moods, or there is only one mood. It is the same whether it is called hustle or uplift. American sociability is . . . like Niagara. It never stops, under the silent stars or the rolling storms. (p. 288-289)

And there are, in the book, many, many other amusing notes about the differences between the Englishman and the American.

Chesterton on Culture Shock

Chesterton has a refreshing way of discussing culture shock in this book. He points out the discomfort that is inevitable in travelling.

A foreigner is a man who laughs at everything except jokes. (p. 163)

He also argues that as long as we think we understand a people or nation, we will be unable to learn anything new about them. He illustrates this by a strange anecdote in the chapter “The Extraordinary American,” which is about an inexplicable meeting in Oklahoma. His apt summary:

We have never even begun to understand a people until we have found something that we do not understand. (p. 182, emphasis mine)

Chesterton on American Politics

The modern Briton sees American politics from afar as a circus. Chesterton calls it—along with his own nation—a plutocracy (rule by the rich), a term which has only grown in relevance.

Vulgar plutocracy is almost omnipotent in both countries; but I think there is now more kick of reaction against it in America than in England. (p. 264-265)

Political representation in democracy, for Chesterton, is a sleight-of-hand trick: we go to pains to elect whomever we want, and then spend their term criticizing them. He writes that the King of England is a popular figure, and that “pure democracy” leads inevitably to tyranny. (He first said this, I believe, in his novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill.) This agrees somewhat with statements made by James Madison in Federalist Paper no. 10, written in 1787.

Along with many British believers or young American Christians, Chesterton would be considered conservative on moral issues but liberal on social issues. Firstly, he sees the American republic as having a theological foundation:

America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature. (p. 7, emphasis mine)

This rings true, of course, with most conservative Christians; but his other opinions may raise some feathers—especially his view of economics, which is definitely not capitalist, but not exactly socialist either.

A wise man’s attitude towards industrial capitalism will be very like Lincoln’s attitude towards slavery. That is, he will manage to endure capitalism; but he will not endure a defence of capitalism. (p. 226)

Politically moderate Christians, who are today called “politically homeless,” will definitely be interested in Chesterton’s views.

Chesterton on Internationalism

The League of Nations, which was later replaced by the United Nations, was the first worldwide intergovernmental organization, founded in 1920. Although we may have forgotten it after the disillusionment of World War II, the original goal was to maintain world peace and international unity. Novelist H. G. Wells had written that if we could not maintain such a peace, then only war is possible.

This kind of thinking Chesterton consistently and utterly rejects. In numerous places in his writings, he shows outrage at the idea of a neutral assimilation along any lines, whether moral, political, denominational, linguistic, or cultural. He says twice that this is the main contention of the entire book:

I would insist everywhere in this book . . . that the remedy is to be found in disentangling the two and not in entangling them further. (p. 233)

The safest path for Anglo-American relations, he says, is for the English to be more English, not more American; and for the English to learn to appreciate America as American, and the American to appreciate England as English. In this way, he makes a great argument for diversity (as elsewhere). One of the characters in his early novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill makes a similar argument:

Do you really mean to say that at the moment when the Esquimaux has learnt to vote for a County Council, you will have learnt to spear a walrus? (Napoleon of Notting Hill, p. 41)

Chesterton’s objection to “internationalism” is summarized thus:

The objection to spreading anything all over the world is that, among other things, you have to spread it very thin. (p. 244)

Other Themes in What I Saw in America

As in any book of essays, numerous themes are discussed and couldn’t possibly fit into a review. Some other themes addressed prominently in this book are given here:

  • American humor
  • American journalism
  • American politics
  • American individualism
  • Political representation
  • Capitalism and work ethic
  • Egalitarianism vs. capitalism
  • The moral influence of new technologies
  • The fruitlessness of the Prohibition (1920-1933)

Quotes:

“The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose; and the text of Scripture which he now most commonly quotes is, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” That text has served to identify self-satisfaction with “the peace that passes all understanding.” And the text to be quoted in answer to it is that which declares that no man can receive the kingdom except as a little child. What we are to have inside is the childlike spirit; but the childlike spirit is not entirely concerned about what is inside. It is the first mark of possessing it that one is interested in what is outside. The most childlike thing about a child is his curiosity and his appetite and his power of wonder at the world. We might almost say that the whole advantage of having the kingdom within is that we look for it somewhere else.” (p. 279)

Prohibition:

“The first thing to be said about it is that it does not exist. . . . Prohibition never prohibits. It never has in history; not even in Moslem history; and it never will.” (p. 145)

American Culture:

“Americans are very unpunctual.” (p. 113)

“Individualism is the death of individuality.” (p. 169)

Read for Free: LibriVox (audiobook), Internet Archive (pdf), Project Gutenberg (epub & rtf), Kindle Store (mobi),

 

Review: The Trees of Pride (Spoilers)

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Rating: ★★★★

Author: G. K. Chesterton was a devoutly Catholic journalist, poet and novelist of the early 20th century. His most apt nickname is “The Prince of Paradox.”

Overview: The Trees of Pride is one of Chesterton’s mystery novels, of which he has many. Most are in the Father Brown series; this, however, is a singlet.

The Trees of Pride takes place in Cornwall, in a quaint coastal village in the far southwest reaches of England. Cornwall, though a popular tourist destination, is also associated with occult practices, as well as its history of piracy. This makes it an obvious choice for a murder mystery.

Meat:

For starters, I have to admit, this was the first mystery novel I have ever read, and Chesterton did not disappoint. All of his books are stimulating and thoughtful. Chesterton skillfully speaks through the narrative as well as through the characters as voiceboxes.

Chesterton creates a fictional saint, St. Securis. Trees are moved by his prayers; a myth of Orpheus leading trees by his music is also referenced. These walking trees are also in Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse and are a favorite motif of the Inklings (who, readers should remember, were readers of Chesterton and not his personal acquaintances).

Chesterton sets up these trees as a foil: everyone believes the trees kill. Then the doctor sets up an elaborated faked death in order to ensure the trees will be destroyed.

In the end, the popular myth was in fact correct; although, all the educated people in the story had assumed that this was the one explanation to be scorned. Thus, the doctor says in the end:

I had something against me heavier and more hopeless than the hostility of the learned; I had the support of the ignorant. (loc. 927)

And again:

Your rational principle was that a thing must be false because thousands of men had found it true; that because many human eyes had seen something, it could not be there. (loc. 954)

Bones:

This book is a very quick read, and it doesn’t have as wide an appeal as some of his other novels. Some modern readers will definitely feel off-put by the blatant use of certain characters as a voicebox, a practice criticized in postmodern literature. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read and will remain one of the better of Chesterton’s fiction works.

Read For Free: LibriVox (audiobook), Project Gutenberg (epub, rtf), Kindle Store (mobi).

You can find links to many Chesterton’s books for free here.

A Bibliography of G. K. Chesterton (by Genre)

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All of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s publications are listed here by genre (edited from Wikipedia’s list, which is chronological).

In 2020 and 2021, I hope to post book reviews of all of Chesterton’s 97 solo-authored books and booklets. (Altogether, they comprise about 84 unique volumes; two are only repeated material, and 11 of those listed below are booklets of 50 pages or less.) So far, I have reviewed more than 25 of them, and more are on the way; links given below are to my book reviews.

This bibliography makes no mentions of the many articles, introductions, and forewords that Chesterton wrote.

Biography

  1. (1902), Twelve Types
  2. (1902), Robert Louis Stevenson [40 pages]
  3. (1903), Varied Types [expanded version of Twelve Types]
  4. (1903), Robert Browning
  5. (1904), G. F. Watts
  6. (1910), William Blake
  7. (1917), Lord Kitchener [27 pages]
  8. (1923), St. Francis of Assisi
  9. (1925), William Cobbett
  10. (1927), Robert Louis Stevenson [259 pages]
  11. (1932), Chaucer
  12. (1933), St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox
  13. (1936), Autobiography

* In 1927, biographies of Girolamo Savonarola and Napoleon Bonaparte had been planned as well, but were unfortunately never completed!

Criticism

  1. (1905), Heretics
  2. (1906), Charles Dickens: A Critical Study
  3. (1909), George Bernard Shaw
  4. (1911), Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens
  5. (1913), The Victorian Age in Literature

Nonfiction

* Those marked with an asterisk are collections of short articles.

  1. (1901), *The Defendant (review coming soon)
  2. (1908), Orthodoxy
  3. (1908), *All Things Considered
  4. (1909), *Tremendous Trifles (review coming soon)
  5. (1910), *Alarms and Discursions  (review coming soon)
  6. (1910), *What’s Wrong With the World
  7. (1912), *A Miscellany of Men (review scheduled)
  8. (1914), The Barbarism of Berlin
  9. (1914), London [40 pages]
  10. (1915), The Appetite of Tyranny [includes The Barbarism of Berlin]
  11. (1915), The Crimes of England
  12. (1916), Divorce vs. Democracy [16 pages]
  13. (1916), Temperance and The Great Alliance [12 pages]
  14. (1917), A Short History of England
  15. (1917), *Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays
  16. (1918), How to Help Annexation [16 pages]
  17. (1919), Irish Impressions
  18. (1920), The New Jerusalem
  19. (1920), The Superstition of Divorce
  20. (1920), *The Uses of Diversity
  21. (1922), Eugenics and other Evils
  22. (1922), What I Saw in America
  23. (1923), *Fancies Versus Fads
  24. (1925), The Superstitions of the Sceptic [50 pages]
  25. (1925), The Everlasting Man
  26. (1926), The Outline of Sanity
  27. (1926), The Catholic Church and Conversion
  28. (1927), Culture and the Coming Peril [19 pages]
  29. (1927), Social Reform vs. Birth Control [not available]
  30. (1928), *Generally Speaking
  31. (1929), The Thing: Why I am a Catholic
  32. (1929), G.K.C. as M.C. [collected introductions, edited by J. P. de Fonseka]
  33. (1930), *Come to Think of It
  34. (1930), The Resurrection of Rome
  35. (1931), *All is Grist
  36. (1932), Sidelights of New London and Newer York
  37. (1933), *All I Survey
  38. (1934), *Avowals and Denials
  39. (1934), GK’s: A Miscellany of the First 500 Issues of G. K.’s Weekly
  40. (1935), *The Well and the Shallows
  41. (1936), *As I Was Saying

Novels

  1. (1904), The Napoleon of Notting Hill
  2. (1908), The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare
  3. (1909), The Ball and the Cross
  4. (1912), Manalive
  5. (1914), The Flying Inn
  6. (1914), Trial of John Jasper, Lay Precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the Murder of Edwin Drood
  7. (1924), The End of the Roman Road
  8. (1927), The Return of Don Quixote
  9. (1931), The Floating Admiral [collaborative detective story]
  10. (1932), Christendom in Dublin

Plays

  1. (1913), Magic: A Fantastic Comedy
  2. (1927), The Judgment of Dr. Johnson
  3. (1930), The Turkey and the Turk
  4. (1952), The Surprise [published posthumously]

Poetry

  1. (1900), Greybeards at Play
  2. (1900), The Wild Knight and Other Poems
  3. (1911), The Ballad of the White Horse
  4. (1915), Poems
  5. (1915), Wine, Water and Song (review coming soon)
  6. (1922), The Ballad of St. Barbara and Other Poems
  7. (1926), The Queen of Seven Swords
  8. (1927), Gloria in Profundis [single poem]
  9. (1929), Ubi Ecclesia [single poem]
  10. (1929), Christmas Poems
  11. (1929), New and Collected Poems
  12. (1930), The Grave of Arthur [single poem]
  13. (1932), New Poems

Short Story Collections

  1. (1905), The Club of Queer Trades
  2. (1911), The Innocence of Father Brown
  3. (1914), The Wisdom of Father Brown (review coming soon)
  4. (1922), The Man Who Knew Too Much
  5. (1925), Tales of the Long Bow
  6. (1926), The Incredulity of Father Brown
  7. (1927), The Secret of Father Brown
  8. (1928), The Sword of Wood [25 pages]
  9. (1929), The Poet and the Lunatics
  10. (1930), Four Faultless Felons, separately in US as The Ecstatic Thief; The Honest Quack; The Loyal Traitor; The Moderate Murderer
  11. (1935), The Scandal of Father Brown
  12. (1937), The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond [published posthumously]

Multiple-Author Works

  1. Williams, J. E. Hodder (1902), Thomas Carlyle [40 pages]
  2. W. Robertson Nicoll (1902), Robert Louis Stevenson [40 pages]
  3. Kitton, F. G. (1903), Charles Dickens [40 pages]
  4. Garnett, Richard (1903), Tennyson [40 pages]
  5. Melville, Lewis (1903), Thackeray [40 pages]
  6. Perris, G. H.; Garnett, Edward (1903), Leo Tolstoy [40 pages] (review coming soon)
  7. Shaw, George Bernard (1928), Do We Agree? [debate]

Anthologies and Selections

  1. (1910), Five Types [selected from Twelve Types]
  2. (1911), The Wit and Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton
  3. (1911), A Chesterton Calendar. Compiled from the Writings of G.K.C. [calendar]
  4. (1912), Simplicity and Tolstoy [selected from Twelve Types]
  5. (1916), A Shilling for My Thoughts
  6. (1926), Collected Works (9 vol.)
  7. (1926), Collected Poems
  8. (1927), The Collected Poems of G.K. Chesterton
  9. (1929), Father Brown Omnibus [collected stories]
  10. (1935), Stories, Essays And Poems
  11. (1937), The Man Who Was Chesterton [anthology]
  12. (1938), The Coloured Lands
  13. (1940), Sheed, Frank (ed.), The End of the Armistice
  14. (1943), The Pocket Book of Father Brown [reprint collection]
  15. (1950), The Common Man
  16. (1953), A Handful of Authors
  17. (1954), Collected Poems
  18. (1955), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Glass Walking-Stick
  19. (1958), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), Lunacy and Letters
  20. (1959), The Second Father Brown [reprint collection]
  21. (1961), Ten Adventures of Father Brown [reprint collection]
  22. (1961), Where All Roads Lead
  23. (1965), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Spice of Life
  24. (1970), Auden, W.H. (ed.), G. K. Chesterton. A selection from his non-fictional prose, Faber & Faber.
  25. (1972), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), Chesterton on Shakespeare.
  26. (1975), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Apostle and the Wild Ducks.
  27. (1978), The Hound of Heaven and Other Poems.
  28. (1981), The Penguin Complete Father Brown [reprint collection]
  29. (1983), The Father Brown Omnibus [reprint collection]
  30. (1984), Smith, Marie (ed.), The Spirit of Christmas.
  31. (1984), Basic Chesterton.
  32. (1985), Kavanagh, P.J. (ed.), The Bodley Head G.K. Chesterton.
  33. (1986), Smith, Marie (ed.), Daylight and Nightmare [uncollected short fiction]
  34. (1986), GK’s Weekly: A Sampler
  35. (1986), The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press)
  36. (1986), Illustrated London News, 1905–1907.
  37. (1987), Illustrated London News, 1908–1910.
  38. (1987), The Best of Father Brown [reprint collection]
  39. (1988), Illustrated London News, 1911–1913
  40. (1988), Illustrated London News, 1914–1916
  41. (1989), Illustrated London News, 1917–1919
  42. (1989), Illustrated London News, 1920–1922
  43. (1989), Smith, Marie (ed.), Thirteen Detectives
  44. (1989), Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: Plays
  45. (1989), The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown [reprint collection]
  46. (1990), Father Brown Crime Stories [reprint collection]
  47. (1990), Smith, Marie (ed.), Seven Suspects
  48. (1990), de Silva, Alvaro (ed.), Brave New Family
  49. (1990), Illustrated London News, 1923–1925
  50. (1991), Illustrated London News, 1926–1928
  51. (1991), Illustrated London News, 1929–1931
  52. (1991), The Mask of Midas
  53. (1994), Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: Collected Poetry: Part 1
  54. (1996), Father Brown of the Church of Rome [reprint collection]
  55. (1997), Platitudes Undone (annotations), Platitudes in the Making by Holbrook Jackson.
  56. (1997), Sparkes, Russel (ed.), Prophet of Orthodoxy: The Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton.
  57. (2000), On Lying in Bed and Other Essays
  58. (2001), Criticisms and Appreciations of the Works of Charles Dickens
  59. (2001), The G.K. Chesterton Papers: Additional Manuscripts
  60. (2002), Chesterton Day by Day: The Wit and Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton
  61. (2003), Essential Writings
  62. (2004), G. K. Chesterton’s Early Poetry: Greybeards at Play, The White Knight and Other Poems, The Ballad of the White Horse
  63. (2011), Illustrated London News, 1932–1934
  64. (2011), Stapleton, Julia (ed.), G. K. Chesterton at the Daily News: Literature, Liberalism, and Revolution, Part 1, volumes 1–4
  65. (2012), Stapleton, Julia (ed.), G. K. Chesterton at the Daily News: Literature, Liberalism, and Revolution, Part 2, volumes 5–8

Review: The Knowledge of the Holy

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Rating: ★★★★★

Author: A. W. Tozer was an American pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. In addition to the books that he wrote during his lifetime—of which the most famous are The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy—hundreds of his sermons have been preserved for us and published in various forms. He also wrote many short articles as editor of the Alliance Weekly, seen for instance in Of God and Men and Born After Midnight. He is Arminian in theology, but mystical in outlook.

Genre: Devotional, theology proper.

Overview:

Tozer makes a statement in the introduction of this book that encapsulates the meaning and importance of theology proper for every believer:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. (p. 1)

After this challenge, he handles attributes of God one by one in 23 chapters, each of which has been carefully distilled.

Theology proper was the task of a lifetime for Tozer. In addition to The Knowledge of the Holy, he has numerous sermons and sermon series on God’s attributes, some of which have also been published in book form. His Attributes of God series goes into more detail on specific theological questions. Of them all, however, The Knowledge of the Holy is the clearest and the best.

Tozer sees theology as leading us first and foremost to worship. As such, his book only takes on controversial topics as they tend to the kindling of renewed faith. He is the consummate devotional writer: which is to say, his goal in his writings and sermons is always to lead his listeners and readers to worship.

Meat:

The first chapter, “Why We Must Think Rightly about God,” is an obvious high point.

A high point in this book for me was Tozer’s Arminian explanation of “The Sovereignty of God.” He writes that we may know with certainty that a steamer is bound for Boston without knowing who will be on the steamer; in the same way, we know that the “elect” are going to heaven, but who is included in the “elect” is a matter subject to change over time. This explanation should be lucid and helpful to most Arminians.

Bones:

After the introductory chapters (1-4), Tozer spends five chapters introducing theology proper in a kind of Classical framework, which is obviously influenced by Greek philosophical thought. Although there is very little that I take issue with in chapters 5 through 10, the framework is based on systematic philosophical concerns. I think it could have been a more biblically grounded, rather than systematically grounded.

Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. . . . The God who worketh all things surely needs no help and no helpers. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God.

While this is clear enough in systematic theology, it is not so clear in biblical theology. One of the misconceptions of Job’s friends (42:8) was that they believed that God puts no trust in his servants (4:18-19, 15:15-16). On the contrary, the theatrical frame for the Book of Job leads us to believe that God puts too much trust in his servants. God isn’t flippant concerning our spiritual outcomes; both Testaments lead us to the conclusion that he is truly invested—if anything, more invested than we ourselves are.

Quotes:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. (p. 1)

The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid—that is the paradox of faith.

God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, ‘What doest thou?’ Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so.

The Armor of God (VIII): The Sword of the Spirit

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This is the eighth and final part in an eight-part series on “the armor of God” in Ephesians 6. It starts here.

. . . and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:17)

I mentioned at the beginning of this series that the entire panoply is defensive, with the sole exception of “the sword of the Spirit.” Now we arrive at a discussion of the meaning of this weapon.

The sword is a metaphor throughout Scripture for the Word of God, and not just in Ephesians or Hebrews. There are three elements that the word of God is compared to (whether in simile or metaphor):

  1. Light
    lamp [Ps. 119:105]
    fire [Jer. 23:29, technically a simile]
    mirror [James 1:23, simile]
  2. Food
    milk [1 Pet. 2:2, Heb. 5:12, 1 Cor. 3:2]
    meat [Heb. 5:12, 1 Cor. 3:2]
  3. Weapon
    sword [Eph. 6:17, Heb. 4:12-13, Rev. 1:16; see also Isa. 49:2, Hos. 6:5, Rev. 2:12, 19:15, 19:21]
    hammer [Jer. 23:29, simile]
    fire [Jer. 5:14, see also Jer. 20:9, 23:29]

There may be a few similes not mentioned here. For instance, the Word is like a seed that brings life (1 Pet. 1:23), and the Word is like water that cleanses (Eph. 5:26-27).

Overall, though, the most common metaphor used of God’s Word is a weapon. And out of the weapon metaphors, a sword appears to be the most repeated throughout both Testaments.

The Word Reveals, Nourishes, and Hurts

These metaphors that are repeated throughout Scripture enable us to see the Word as accomplishing at least three functions in our lives: It reveals, it nourishes, and it hurts. Needless to say, the third of these is the most surprising, especially since it is the most repeated!

The Word reveals. As a lamp, the Word reveals the way to live; as a fire, the Word brings safety at night, but in that passage in Jeremiah, it is also, yet again, a weapon. And as a mirror, the Word reveals to us ourselves.

The Word also nourishes. Both Peter and Paul compare God’s Word to “spiritual milk” that brings us to maturity. There is also a word from God that is like “meat”—it strengthens us and energizes us. The Word also takes time to digest! We need to take it pieces, not all at once, lest we miss the maturity that comes with each morsel of revelation.

The Word hurts. Take a look at Jeremiah’s word:

12 They have lied about the Lord,
And said, “It is not He.
Neither will evil come upon us,
Nor shall we see sword or famine. . . .”

14 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts:

“Because you speak this word,
Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire,
And this people wood,
And it shall devour them.”

(Jer. 5:12, 14, NKJV)

God’s Word is amazingly powerful. The same Word that said in the beginning, “let there be light”—and there was light—still has power to build and destroy, to create and to undo. In a sense, some Creation processes have freedom to run “in the background” with or without divine maintenance—although truly “in him all things hold together.” (Col. 1:17) But when he wants to tear down entire nations, he does it, not with lightning and thunder, with his arm and his power, but with his word.

Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. (Rev. 19:15, NKJV)

The same sword that, in the end, defeats Satan’s armies, is the sword that we as believers wield against him. His Word is that powerful. Amazingly, this “sword” is the only weapon mentioned.

Finally, the Word hurts to heal. When the author of Hebrews calls the Word “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit” (4:12 NKJV), we should take notice that he’s talking about believers. The author of Hebrews speaks of warning believers, to “be diligent to enter that rest” (4:11):

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. (4:1 NKJV)

The sword of the Spirit may pierce us now as a way of helping us to know if our efforts are from the soul or from the spirit. As we close our discussion of God’s suit of armor, let us make every effort to find ourselves among those that are pierced here and now by the Word of God—for everyone who is not pierced by it now, will assuredly be pierced by it hereafter.

A Bibliography of G. K. Chesterton

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All of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s publications are listed here chronologically (edited from Wikipedia’s list).

Single-Author Works

  1. (1900), Greybeards at Play (poetry), London: R. Brimley Johnson.
  2. (1900), The Wild Knight and Other Poems (poetry).
  3. (1901), The Defendant, London: R. Brimley Johnson.
  4. (1902), Twelve Types, London: Arthur L. Humphreys.
  5. (1903), Robert Browning, London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd..
  6. (1903), Varied Types, New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company.
  7. (1904), The Napoleon of Notting Hill (novel), London & New York: John Lane: The Bodley Head.
  8. (1904), G.F. Watts, London: Duckworth & Co..
  9. (1905), The Club of Queer Trades (stories), New York & London: Harper & Brothers.
  10. (1905), Heretics, London: John Lane: The Bodley Head.
  11. (1906), Charles Dickens.
  12. (1908), The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (novel), New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
  13. (1908), Orthodoxy, London: Bodley Head.
  14. (1908), All Things Considered, London: Methuen & Co.
  15. (1909), George Bernard Shaw, New York: John Lane Company.
  16. (1909), Tremendous Trifles, London: Methuen & Co..
  17. (1909), The Ball and the Cross (novel), London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Ltd.
  18. (1910), Five Types (essays), selected from Twelve Types.
  19. (1910), William Blake.
  20. (1910), Alarms and Discursions.
  21. (1910), What’s Wrong With the World.
  22. (1911), Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens.
  23. (1911), The Ballad of the White Horse (poetry).
  24. (1911), The Wit and Wisdom of GK Chesterton.
  25. (1911), The Innocence of Father Brown (stories).
  26. (1911), A Chesterton Calendar. Compiled from the Writings of G.K.C. (Calendar).
  27. (1912), Manalive (novel).
  28. (1912), A Miscellany of Men.
  29. (1912), Simplicity and Tolstoy.
  30. (1913), Magic (play).
  31. (1913), The Victorian Age in Literature.
  32. (1914), The Flying Inn (novel).
  33. (1914), The Wisdom of Father Brown (stories).
  34. (1914), Trial of John Jasper, Lay Precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the Murder of Edwin Drood.
  35. (1914), London.
  36. (1914), The Barbarism of Berlin.
  37. (1915), Poems.
  38. (1915), Wine, Water and Song (poetry) – via Project Gutenberg.
  39. (1915), The Appetite of Tyranny.
  40. (1915), The Crimes of England.
  41. (1916), Divorce vs. Democracy.
  42. (1916), The Book of Job.
  43. (1916), A Shilling for My Thoughts.
  44. (1916), Temperance and The Great Alliance (pamphlet).
  45. (1917), Utopia of Usurers.
  46. (1917), Lord Kitchener.
  47. (1917), A Short History of England.
  48. (1918), How to Help Annexation.
  49. (1919), Irish Impressions.
  50. (1920), The Superstition of Divorce.
  51. (1920), The Uses of Diversity.
  52. (1920), The New Jerusalem.
  53. (1922), The Ballad of St. Barbara and Other Poems (poetry).
  54. (1922), The Man Who Knew Too Much (stories).
  55. (1922), Eugenics and other Evils.
  56. (1922), What I Saw in America.
  57. (1923), St. Francis of Assisi.
  58. (1923), Poems.
  59. (1923), Fancies Versus Fads (essays).
  60. (1924), The End of the Roman Road.
  61. (1925), Tales of The Long Bow (stories).
  62. (1925), The Superstitions of the Sceptic.
  63. (1925), The Everlasting Man.
  64. (1925), William Cobbett.
  65. (1926), The Queen of Seven Swords (poetry).
  66. (1926), The Outline of Sanity.
  67. (1926), The Incredulity of Father Brown (stories).
  68. (1926), The Catholic Church and Conversion.
  69. (1926), Collected Works. Nine volumes.
  70. (1926), Collected Poems.
  71. (1927), Robert Louis Stevenson.
  72. (1927), The Secret of Father Brown (stories).
  73. (1927), The Return of Don Quixote (novel).
  74. (1927), The Judgment of Dr. Johnson (play).
  75. (1927), The Collected Poems of G.K. Chesterton.
  76. (1927), Gloria in Profundis (poetry).
  77. (1927), Culture and the Coming Peril.
  78. (1927), Social Reform vs. Birth Control
  79. (1928), Generally Speaking
  80. (1928), The Sword of Wood (stories).
  81. (1929), The Thing: Why I am a Catholic.
  82. (1929), de Fonseka, J.P. (ed.), G.K.C. as M.C (collected introductions).
  83. (1929), Father Brown Omnibus (collected stories).
  84. (1929), The Poet and the Lunatics (stories).
  85. (1929), Ubi Ecclesia (poetry).
  86. (1929), Christmas Poems.
  87. (1929), New and Collected Poems.
  88. (1930), Four Faultless Felons (stories), separately in US as The Ecstatic Thief; The Honest Quack; The Loyal Traitor; The Moderate Murderer.
  89. (1930), The Turkey and the Turk (play for mummers).
  90. (1930), The Grave of Arthur.
  91. (1930), Come to Think of It.
  92. (1930), The Resurrection of Rome.
  93. (1931), All is Grist.
  94. (1931), The Floating Admiral (collaborative detective story).
  95. (1932), Chaucer.
  96. (1932), New Poems.
  97. (1932), Christendom in Dublin.
  98. (1932), Sidelights of New London and Newer York.
  99. (1933), All I Survey.
  100. (1933), St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox.
  101. (1934), Avowals and Denials.
  102. (1934), GK’s: A Miscellany of the First 500 Issues of G. K.’s Weekly.
  103. (1935), The Well and the Shallows.
  104. (1935), The Scandal of Father Brown (stories).
  105. (1935), Stories, Essays And Poems.
  106. (1936), Autobiography.
  107. (1936), As I Was Saying.

Multiple-Author Works

  1. Williams, J.E. Hodder (1902), Thomas Carlyle, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  2. Kitton, F.G. (1903), Charles Dickens: with Numerous Illustrations, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  3. Garnett, Richard (1903), Tennyson, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  4. Melville, Lewis (1903), Thackeray, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  5. Perris, G.H.; Garnett, Edward (1903), Leo Tolstoy, London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  6. Shaw, George Bernard (1928), Do We Agree? (debate).

Posthumous Works and Compilations

  1. (1937), The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond.
  2. (1937), The Man Who Was Chesterton (anthology)
  3. (1938), The Coloured Lands.
  4. (1940), Sheed, Frank (ed.), The End of the Armistice.
  5. (1943), The Pocket Book of Father Brown, and many other reprint collections, including:
  6. (1959), The Second Father Brown,
  7. (1961), Ten Adventures of Father Brown,
  8. (1981), The Penguin Complete Father Brown,
  9. (1983), The Father Brown Omnibus,
  10. (1987), The Best of Father Brown,
  11. (1989), The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown,
  12. (1990), Father Brown Crime Stories,
  13. (1996), Father Brown of the Church of Rome.
  14. (1950), The Common Man.
  15. (1952), The Surprise (play).
  16. (1953), A Handful of Authors.
  17. (1954), Collected Poems.
  18. (1955), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Glass Walking-Stick.
  19. (1958), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), Lunacy and Letters.
  20. (1961), Where All Roads Lead.
  21. (1965), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Spice of Life.
  22. (1970), Auden, W.H. (ed.), G. K. Chesterton. A selection from his non-fictional prose, Faber & Faber.
  23. (1972), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), Chesterton on Shakespeare.
  24. (1975), Collins, Dorothy (ed.), The Apostle and the Wild Ducks.
  25. (1978), The Hound of Heaven and Other Poems.
  26. (1984), Smith, Marie (ed.), The Spirit of Christmas.
  27. (1984), Basic Chesterton.
  28. (1985), Kavanagh, P.J. (ed.), The Bodley Head G.K. Chesterton.
  29. (1986), Smith, Marie (ed.), Daylight and Nightmare (uncollected short fiction).
  30. (1986), GK’s Weekly: A Sampler.
  31. (1986), The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Ignatius Press.
  32. (1986), Illustrated London News, 1905–1907.
  33. (1987), Illustrated London News, 1908–1910.
  34. (1988), Illustrated London News, 1911–1913.
  35. (1988), Illustrated London News, 1914–1916.
  36. (1989), Illustrated London News, 1917–1919.
  37. (1989), Illustrated London News, 1920–1922.
  38. (1989), Smith, Marie (ed.), Thirteen Detectives.
  39. (1989), Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: Plays.
  40. (1990), Smith, Marie (ed.), Seven Suspects.
  41. (1990), de Silva, Alvaro (ed.), Brave New Family.
  42. (1990), Illustrated London News, 1923–1925.
  43. (1991), Illustrated London News, 1926–1928.
  44. (1991), Illustrated London News, 1929–1931.
  45. (1991), The Mask of Midas.
  46. (1994), Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: Collected Poetry: Part 1.
  47. (1997), Platitudes Undone (annotations), Platitudes in the Making by Holbrook Jackson.
  48. (1997), Sparkes, Russel (ed.), Prophet of Orthodoxy: The Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton.
  49. (2000), Eugenics and Other Evils.
  50. (2000), On Lying in Bed and Other Essays.
  51. (2001), Criticisms and Appreciations of the works of Charles Dickens.
  52. (2001), The G.K. Chesterton Papers: Additional Manuscripts.
  53. (2002), Chesterton Day by Day: The Wit and Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton.
  54. (2003), Essential Writings.
  55. (2004), G. K. Chesterton’s Early Poetry: Greybeards at Play, The White Knight and Other Poems, The Ballad of the White Horse.
  56. (2011), Illustrated London News, 1932–1934.
  57. (2011), Stapleton, Julia (ed.), G. K. Chesterton at the Daily News: Literature, Liberalism, and Revolution, Part 1, volumes 1–4, Pickering & Chatto.
  58. (2012), Stapleton, Julia (ed.), G. K. Chesterton at the Daily News: Literature, Liberalism, and Revolution, Part 2, volumes 5–8, Pickering & Chatto.

Review: The Appetite of Tyranny

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Rating: ★★

Author: G. K. Chesterton was a devoutly Catholic journalist, poet and novelist of the early 20th century. His most apt nickname is “The Prince of Paradox.”

Full Title:  The Appetite of Tyranny: Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian

Alternate Titles: The Appetite of Tyranny combines two previous books, both of which were very short: The Barbarism of Berlin (1914), which was a response to the July Crisis, and Letters to an Old Garibaldian (March 1915).

Genre: Non-fiction, journalism, wartime essays.

Overview:

The Appetite of Tyranny is a brief, thoughtful book, but not always measured in its tone. This little book addresses what Chesterton sees as the roots of German aggression that resulted in World War I. Although at the outset it is supposed to be reasoning against German ideology and policy, the book devolves into criticisms of the German people themselves.

The essay was published in 1914—directly in the wake of the July Crisis that led into World War I—so it is understandably polemic in tone. Chesterton sees the crisis as resulting from lack of faithfulness among German leadership on two points: keeping their word (they had promised not to invade Belgium), and maintaining reciprocity. Of course, the war itself would probably not be described so unilaterally in most history books.

Based on Project Gutenberg downloads, this appears to be the least popular of Chesterton’s fifty-odd books (the most popular being Orthodoxy and The Man Who Was Thursday).

This book is not really what we would call “classic” Chesterton, so I don’t recommend it for devotional or leisurely reading, unless you are highly interested in World War I. I consider World War I to be an understandably weak period in Chesterton’s writing.

Meat:

Chesterton is never concerned solely with the surface of the issue; he is always hunting for some principle behind the circumstances at play, so that he can better understand the motives and outcomes. For the most part, that is the case in The Appetite of Tyranny (though probably less so in The Crimes of England or Lord Kitchener).

He begins by seeking to demonstrate that “civilization,” in terms of technological advancement, has made the Germans no less “barbarous.” He argues that intellect and technology may only increase their evil:

If their cities soared higher than their flying ships, if their trains travelled faster than their bullets, we should still call them barbarians.

This is the kind of argument used, for instance, in his novel The Trees of Pride. But Chesterton’s argument weakens as he resorts to less logical attacks on the German people.

The most interesting points in this little book, I thought, were those that presaged the development of the Nazi movement. From the beginning of World War I, Chesterton openly mocked German “race theorists” and the superiority complex that he saw as fueling—or, at least, excusing—German aggression. He quotes a Professor Ostwald of Berlin University as saying:

Science combined with organisation makes us terrible to our opponents and ensures a German future for Europe. (p. 48)

Chesterton goes on to recount an argument by a German writer that Leonardo da Vinci was German! These examples are interesting in retrospect as exemplifying the kind of ideology that preceded Nazism. Chesterton was relatively consistent in this area as an outspoken critic of eugenics and related ideologies.

Bones:

As the essay continues, he slips into equating German politics with the German people as a whole, and commits several slurs which are difficult to excuse over a century later. Surely, when they were written, the English would not have thought twice about his generalizations, reeling as Europe was in the shock of the Great War. To my mind, he somewhat repeats the error of the Germans by insulting them as Germans.

I should add, even if he weren’t English, Chesterton’s sympathies would almost necessarily on the French side, the French being predominantly Catholic. He often speaks fondly of his travels in France; I am not sure if he ever visited Germany, and he had little regard for Luther.

This and several of his other books of the time period are mainly responses to the needs of the time, and haven’t aged nearly as well as most of his works. Although it contains a few interesting historical notes and aphorisms here and there (several given below), The Appetite of Tyranny definitely should not be the first (or even third) Chesterton book you pick up.

Related Works: Lord Kitchener, The Crimes of England.

Quotes:

“Others besides German soldiers have slain the defenceless, for loot or lust or private malice, like any other murderer. The point is that nowhere else but in Prussian Germany is any theory of honour mixed up with such things.”

“The collapse of German philosophy always occurs at the beginning, rather than the end of an argument.”

“The danger of the Pruss is that he is prepared to fight for old errors as if they were new truths.”

“The definition of the true savage is that he laughs when he hurts you; and howls when you hurt him.”

“The promise, like the wheel, is unknown in Nature: and is the first mark of man. Referring only to human civilisation, it may be said with seriousness that in the beginning was the Word. The vow is to the man what the song is to the bird, or the bark to the dog; his voice, whereby he is known.” (in an argument about German faithlessness)

“He cannot get outside the idea that he, because he is he and not you, is free to break the law; and also to appeal to the law.”

 

 

The Armor of God (VII): The Helmet of Salvation

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This is the seventh part in an eight-part series on “the armor of God” in Ephesians 6. It starts here.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Eph. 6:17)

Like the “breastplate of righteousness,” the “helmet of salvation” is first mentioned by Isaiah:

For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
(Isa. 59:17)

Some have said that connecting “salvation” to our “heads” implies that salvation is related to our theology or thought processes about God. That is true, in a sense. It is not our right ways of thinking that bring us salvation; it is our salvation that directs our thoughts to God. When we repent and turn to him, he enables us to become his children (John 1:1-14), and this amounts to a total reorientation of our life.

I am not sure whether a reader in Paul’s day or Isaiah’s day would have readily connected their “brain” or “head” with their thoughts. Regardless, I think it’s nearer to the heart of the metaphor to seek to understand the Jewish concept of salvation, and to see it as something that protects the most important part of us.

It is a very American problem to be preoccupied with “where someone is spending eternity” to the exclusion of the consideration of righteousness or even life. An interesting corrective to this has been noticed by better Bible scholars than myself:

  • He “saved” us in Titus 3:5;
  • We are “being saved” in 1 Corinthians 1:18, Acts 2:47, and elsewhere; and,
  • We “will be saved” in Mark 16:16 and Acts 16:31.

“Salvation” as used in the Bible definitely includes a future state; but it also involves a state of wholeness on earth and in this present life. We should think of salvation as God’s protecting influence that begins with forgiveness and culminates in eternal communion.