An Analysis of Chesterton and Nietzsche
Imagine the lame giant of the Victorian age stumbling about in the darkness, wrestling with an unseen opponent. It pries the crushing grip of a hand from its throat only to discover the hand is its own. Imagine two explorers on opposites sides of a great ocean. Anchors are weighed, and each explorer sets out to see just beyond the horizon, to sail beyond the sunset. They collide amidships in the midnight fog and breeze, but they continue their journeys. They reach land, utter words of praise and thanks, plant their flags and claim their claims only to discover that they had each returned to "conquer" their homelands. G.K. Chesterton and Friedrich Nietzsche embarked on cyclical
journeys. Using their explorations in "Orthodoxy" and Beyond Good and Evil, their courses can be mapped toward self discovery. A dynamic relationship exists in examining and understanding their similar philosophical motivations and the resulting overlapping arguments. They both launch scathing attacks on reason; they conceal their ultimate meanings through complexity: one through paradox, the other with the metaphor of the mask; they both advocate the reawakening of a child-like sense of wonder, and ultimately, they found their ethical systems on courage. Using the same philosophical tools, each thinker carves out a completely unique niche into intellectual history: one within the framework of orthodox Christianity, the other as a forefather of modern Existential thought.
Chesterton set "Orthodoxy" in the context of a personal statement of faith and as a retort to Mr. G.S. Street's critique of his earlier work "Heretics." Street claimed that "Heretics" did not provide the reader wi...
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...lexities, it may well be impossible to tell whether G.K. Chesterton was secretly laughing, beneath his paradoxes, whether Nietzsche was sneering behind his mask.
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In the fair city of Verona, two rival families, the Montagues and Capulets were involved in a nasty family feud that goes back years before any of the members were born. Even the townspeople were involved in the dispute, because the families were always fighting in the streets and causing disturbances. They disrupted the streets of Verona and even Prince Escalus tried to break up the fighting. They were given a warning, by him that another public fight would result in death. While this was occurring, Romeo, (a Montague) the main character, was getting over his last love, Rosaline, and was very upset. Juliet of the Capulet household had just been introduced to a wealthy young man, Paris, whom her parents wished her to marry. Yet she did not love him. Romeo goes to a party in an effort to forget about Rosaline. At this party he met Juliet, and immediately fell in love with her. He later finds out that she is a Capulet, the rival family of the Montagues. He decides that he loves her anyway and they confess their love for each other during the very famous "balcony scene" in which they agreed to secretly marry the next day. Friar Lawrence agreed to marry them in an effort to end the feuding between the families. Unfortunately, the fighting gets worse and Mercutio (Montague) a good friend of Romeo ends up in a fight with Tybalt (Capulet), Juliet's cousin. Tybalt killed Mercutio, which caused Romeo to kill Tybalt in an angry rage. For this, Romeo is banished from Verona. At the same time, the Capulet's were planning Juliet's marriage to Paris. Juliet didn't want to marry this man so she arranges with Friar Lawrence to fake her own death with a sleeping potion that would make everyone think that she was dead. Friar Lawrence promised to send word to Romeo to meet her when the potion wears off and to rescue her to Mantua, where Romeo was currently staying. There they would live happily ever after. Unfortunately, Romeo didn't receive the message on time and upon hearing of her "death" went to Juliet's tomb where he drinks poison and dies. When Juliet's potion wears off, she wakes to find her lover's dead corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeo's dagger. The two families find the bodies and with their shared sorrow, finally make peace with each other.
Evans, C. Stephen. Critical Dialog in Philosophy of Religion. 1985. Downers Grove, IL. InterVarsity Press. Taken from Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
The growth of religious ideas is environed with such intrinsic difficulties that it may never receive a perfectly satisfactory exposition. Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such an certain elements of knowledge, the all primitive religions are grotesque to some extent unintelligible. (1877:5)
should do now. He says, "Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars!" Romeo
Throughout the entirety of Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare is hinting at the “star crossed” deadly fate of the lovers spoken of by the chorus in the prologue. Romeo and Juliet are also constantly mentioning their uneasy feelings and how they can sense that something bad will happen, which confirm the aforementioned conclusion. This foreshadowing not only tells us this tragedy planned, but there must be pawns of fate that have to drive Romeo and Juliet together, while at the same time leading them to their death. In Romeo and Juliet, their deadly destiny was written by the universe and characters along the way, such as Capulet, Montague, Nurse, Friar Lawrence, Friar John, and Mercutio.
of a fight "let us take the law of our side let them begin" Sampson
16(41), pp. 3. Retrieved on November 12, 2003 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com.