De Santis, Anthony Nicholas
(2025)
‘… a highly practical thing for working and fighting…’ : the ecclesiology of G. K. Chesterton.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) is perhaps the most widely read Anglophone lay theologian and Catholic apologist of the early twentieth century. Admired for his humor and love of adventure, he is also a profoundly irenic thinker, appealing to Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant readers alike. Despite Chesterton’s theological insights and achievements––one might think, for example, of his celebrated biography of St. Thomas Aquinas (1933), his defense of dogmatic Christianity in Orthodoxy (1908), or his Christocentric reading of history in The Everlasting Man (1925)––and despite, moreover, the numerous scholarly and popular books and articles which explore various aspects of his theology, Chesterton’s ecclesiology––his understanding, that is, of the nature and meaning of the Church––has been largely passed over in silence. In fact, the field of Chesterton studies has yet to yield a comprehensive, sustained analysis of his ecclesiological vision. The aim of this dissertation is to redress that gap in the secondary literature. In a word, this thesis is a scholarly and theological reconstruction of Chesterton’s ecclesiology.
Grounded in a broadly patristic and Thomistic hermeneutical framework and methodology, this thesis identifies and analyzes the leading features of Chesterton’s understanding of the Church. Specifically, this study explores the history of Chesterton’s theological development and the nature of his theological output; his understanding of the dogmatic and hierarchic element of the Church; Chesterton’s ultramontanism; the influence of figures like John Henry Newman on Chesterton’s theology of the Church; the sacramental and graced aspects of Chesterton’s ecclesiology, particularly as they find embodiment and expression in his beloved priest-detective, Father Brown; Chesterton’s understanding of the Church Militant, particularly as it is articulated in his 1911 epic, The Ballad of the White Horse; and the Marian dimension of Chesterton’s ecclesiology, particularly as seen through the aforementioned Ballad and his various Marian poems. In the final analysis, this thesis argues that Chesterton’s ecclesiology is best understood with reference to the Church Fathers; that Chesterton’s understanding of the Church is ordered to her sacramental nature; and that Chesterton’s ecclesiology is characterized by themes of repentance, deification, martyrdom, tradition, universality, and praise. This thesis explores these themes at great length.
Finally, this thesis is interdisciplinary in scope and constructive in approach. As regards the interdisciplinary element, this study is specifically interested in the theological and literary dimensions of Chesterton’s writings. In addition, then, to situating Chesterton within a particular theological context, this thesis is consistently engaged in close readings as it seeks to answer the fundamental question, ‘How does this poem or story or prose text enact and communicate theological meaning?’ In terms of the constructive aspect, this thesis takes inspiration from Chesterton’s irenicism and therefore incorporates, for example, ecclesiological insights and elements from various ecclesial traditions, most notably, Anglican, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox.
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