Orthodoxy

One of the most prevalent complexes of the modern world is the total focus on the self. Total self-belief or self-obsession, however, is an undesirable trait, as Chesterton states, “Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confidence is a weakness. Believing utterly in oneself is a hysterical and superstitious belief” (24). The self is the last thing that should be trusted, and it should be the first thing that we doubt and feel cynical about. He asserts that the current problem is that sin is almost wholly ignored or denied.

This is quite different from how things were in the past, where sin was taken instead as a given. “Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters,” the author states, “there was no doubt at any rate that he wanted washing” (24). The existence of sin and evil was so commonplace historically that it, at some point, was taken for granted. In a growing separation from Christianity, things became quite different, and contemporary philosophical approaches must now find a way to approach life or faith without this basic concept.

Beyond the denial of sin, Chesterton adds, is the consistent fact that some people are driven to “insanity.” It is still the case that the intellect is capable of becoming faulty and weak; in contrast to much common opinion, however, the problem with “insanity,” he says, is that it is typically not a fault of the intellect but a fault of the imagination. While most think that imagination could be the cause of a person’s intellectual descent, he thinks it is much more likely to be caused by hyper-rationality, explaining, “Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom” (27). He thinks that the “loss of sanity” can often be caused by an overreliance on logic or a materialistic and self-confident approach to reality that inherently cannot answer all questions. The arts do not include the assumption of an answer to every question, and so he believes they are not as susceptible to psychological distress of this kind.

To be a human is to sometimes do things that may be useless. That said, Chesterton says that a person who has “lost their sanity” has lost all sense of frivolity or humanity—they have nothing left to them but reason. He asserts that there are three kinds of intellectual descent. The first is that of the person who is convinced that the whole world is conspiring against them. The second is when a person has a completely mistaken sense of their own identity, but that is ultimately harmless and private. The third is when the mistaken identity is so grandiose that it may actually cause the person, or others, genuine harm (physical, moral, emotional, or otherwise).

Related to this “loss of sanity” and overreliance on a particular kind of logic, he says, is the fact that some people become imprisoned by a single idea. When an idea overtakes the mind, a person is too severely attached to it or absorbed by it to realize how it is corrupting their ability to view the world or consider other possibilities. Chesterton vividly describes this philosophical limbo through metaphor: “He is in the clean and well-lit prison of one idea: he is sharpened to one painful point. He is without healthy hesitation and healthy complexity” (34). In many cases, the single idea boils down to a false way of seeing the world. Chesterton will go on to explain the various ways in which he feels that prevalent philosophies of the time are—like these intellectual prisons—based on such flawed ideology that they limit a person from acknowledging the sensible attributes of Christianity.

Some are materialists who view reality as containing only things that are physically perceptible. There is no spiritual or invisible reality; the only things that exist are those things which can be empirically verified. Some are fatalists and determinists, who ultimately believe that all things are predetermined and free will is an illusion. Others still are skeptics, referring to a philosophical skepticism wherein one doubts even ideas accepted as common knowledge. That said, all are victims of their skepticism about one thing or another.

The one thing that will keep people from “losing their sanity,” Chesterton says, is mysticism. He tries to illustrate the positives of this inherently unprovable ideology by writing, “As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity” (41). The single idea that a person may focus on at the expense of all others enables the overreliance on rationality and logic that stamps out the mystery in life. To avoid mystery is to avoid the contradictions and tensions in life, whereas embracing it allows one to live more comfortably alongside these complexities.