“Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. . . . That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.”
Footnotes:
G. K. Chesteron’s Orthodoxy (p. 81):
Chris —
I am beyond stunned that you put this quote up. First of all, because this worship of the man within is exactly at the heart of Protestantism. Do you not see the evidence of this in the myriads of Protestant denominations? All of these different interpretations of the same Bible and the same verses can have only one reason — men depending upon their own selves as the guiding light of Truth.
To whom did Christ promise to be led into all Truth? He made that promise to the Apostles, and that fact is clear in two historical records A) the bishops, descendants of the Apostles, were those to whom the Church turned in councils to determine the Truth B) those outside the Church have always produced heretic opinions which contradict the hundreds of years of Church teaching. It is not hard to fathom which group is being led of the Holy Spirit and which is not when it comes to doctrinal teaching.
I am saddened to see that you have left the Church which our Lord established upon St. Peter for something that came out of men’s inordinate attachments to their own thinking. I cannot fathom what the attraction is for you. I have found Protestant writing to be, in comparison to that of the Catholic saints, to be less than inspiring.
Secondly, I am stunned because Chesterton is among those Catholic writers who are inspiring of the Faith, and I wonder how it is that you read Chesterton and have not qualms of conscience?