Chesterton’s Christmas
by Collin Slowey, Public Discourse:
In “The God in the Cave,” G.K, Chesterton explains that when Christians celebrate the Nativity, they are celebrating an event that changed the course of history and permanently transformed the DNA of human society.
The Christmas narrative is such an integral feature of Western culture that it is always tempting to take it for granted. But in reality, it is one of the most unusual and revolutionary tales known to mankind. During Advent, it is fitting to take some time to reflect on how incredible the story of the Nativity really is. I know of no better writer to reflect alongside in this season than G.K. Chesterton, and no better work to read (or reread) than “The God in the Cave.”
“The God in the Cave” is a chapter from The Everlasting Man, Chesterton’s master commentary on the history of the human race. It is also an insightful essay on the Incarnation, and it stands on its own as a great text. Chesterton’s central thesis is that the idea of God’s becoming a human baby is an unfathomable paradox that separates the Christian mind from all others and has genuinely “altered human nature.” What exactly does he mean by this?
The greatest story ever told
First, Chesterton argues that the story of Christmas is the fulfillment of the entire human project of mythmaking. The shepherds stand for all those men and women throughout history who had sought to explain the world around them and their place in it through the sacred art of storytelling. Over and against the hyper-rationalism of Greek philosophy and the hyper-practicality of Roman statecraft, such figures “understood that the soul of a landscape is a story and the soul of a story is a personality.” Yet even the best myths are just that––stories. As much as their imagery and archetypes may speak to our spirits, they can only ever be “a search.” Myths alone cannot fulfill the deepest yearnings of the human heart.
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