As the pre-eminent member of the global literati, your humble correspondent shall soon be winging his way to the northern prairie, to the site of the annual G. K. Chesterton Conference and Winemaking Symposium. Ah, the posh urbane conversation! Ah, the ineffible desuetude! Ah, the mosquitos - where's my repellent?
This year we discuss one of the most formidable books in the Chestertonian canon - Orthodoxy, written 100 years ago in 1908.
All I can honestly say as a preparation for the conference is this true anecdote. Many years ago two ex-seminarians came to our local Chesterton society to participate in a discussion of Orthodoxy. They proceded to knock the book, and when I said to one of them, "It sounds as if you haven't even read it!" he replied, "I haven't!"
"Then why are you here?" I inquired.
"I object to the title!" he replied.
I am not making this up. Well, in a week or less the conference begins, and we'll go deeper, I trust, than objecting to the title.
3 comments:
That is too, too funny! I am ROTFL! Objecting to the title! Gosh. Too much.
Looking forward to your liveblogging so I can pretend I'm there.
The other true story from that day - I joked with one of the ex-seminarians at one point and said, "With views like that no wonder they kicked you out of seminary!" And his face turned white, and I realized, "Oh my gosh! They really did kick him out of seminary!" And judging by his age, his seminary days must have been in the 1970's.
Mighty hard to get kicked out of seminary in the 70's!
So no wonder he objected to "Orthodoxy".
Well, you struck a nerve. I hope it made him stop and think.
Let's pray for seminarians, and ex-seminarians, too.
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