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Document Details : Title: G.K. Chesterton Subtitle: Imagination and Wonder Author(s): KER, Ian Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 34 Issue: 2-3 Date: 2010 Pages: 209-226 DOI: 10.2143/LS.34.2.2118201 Abstract : According to G.K. Chesterton, the purpose of the imagination is to make what has become standard and stereotypical once again strange and wondrous. This means that, for Chesterton, the imagination has a vital role to play in a post-Christian context, which, because of its over-familiarity with Christianity, is ill-educated, ill-tempered, and left with merely a shadow of the Christian faith. Indeed, in his two great apologetic works, Orthodoxy (1908) and The Everlasting Man (1925), Chesterton argues there is no greater difficulty for the Christian apologist than the post-Christian imagination that has to be made to see Christianity afresh, so that it can be seen for what it really is. This article describes how Chesterton uses the grotesque and the comical in both Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man in order to make the content of Christianity fresh and to enhance its appeal. |
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