Many people know that G.K. Chesterton, a famous defender of the Catholic faith as well as a prolific writer in fields as diverse as murder mysteries, literary criticism, biography, and political, theological and economic thought, fell strangely silent in the mid-1930s and ceased to publish for nearly 50 years. As a result, some speculated he might have died. However, the last few years have seen a fresh outpouring of new and markedly different material from that now-reclusive knight of Christendom. These new writings have been communicated to the outside world through the mediation of an elite team of American theologians from several major Catholic universities. These men and women assure us that these writings authentically embody the thought of "the New Chesterton"--a Chesterton who is now (under their careful editorial supervision) deeply reflective of "Spirit of Vatican II" sensibilities and trends.

New Works

Fiction

The Original Innocence of Father Brown. In this sequel to Father Brown vs. the Board of Education, Chesterton's hero turns inward from the struggles of the civil rights era to "Follow His Bliss." Chesterton traces the faith journey of the famous ex-Jesuit as he clears away the fog of Pauline/Augustinian guilt to rediscover his true unfallen blessedness. Through the use of story (including "Father Brown -- Vegetarian" [subtitled "Cow-Dependent No More"], "Father Brown Fulfills His Wellness Potential," "Love Thine Enneagram," "Father Brown Does What He Needs to Do for Himself" and "Iron Brown") Chesterton invites us to companion his hero on the quest for autonomy, empowerment and the governorship of California.

The Man Who Was Greeley. The raucous exploits, bawdy adventures and significant research findings of the frontier sociologist priest are chronicled in this unusual departure for Chesterton into the world of the western romance novel. Fr. Greeley's lusty life and his founding of the Colorado town which bears his name are among the many adventures of the two-fisted priest who conquered the Rockies and wrote the definitive demographic analysis of declining vocations to religious life.

Revised Works

Biography

Francis of Assisi. Chesterton's powerful account of the 13th Century animal rights activist and his struggles against an anthropocentric Church hierarchy. Peeling away the hagiography which has traditionally focused on Francis' incidental and culturally-conditioned Catholicism, Chesterton hails him as the original "medieval, musical, mystical, magical bear" and zeros in on the real core of his spirituality: Francis' concern for the environment and his insistence on "dialogue with organisms from diverse evolutionary traditions."

Comrade Thomas Aquinas: Quiet Person of Size. (Revised 1985, with a new dedication to Daniel Ortega). Chesterton, now acutely sensitive to the ideological oppression of suffering peoples at the hands of a Eurocentric Church hierarchy, reveals Thomas in his true light as the first architect of the Philosophia Liberatione. He elucidates Thomas' misunderstood deep wisdom (long shrouded in the outmoded conceptual categories of "poverty," "humility" and "eternal life") that the True and Only Millennium could begin with nothing less than "political empowerment of the masses and annihilation of oppressive societal structures of injustice such as we now see beginning in Managua, in all Nicaragua, in Central America and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." In his chapter "The Real Life of Comrade Thomas," Chesterton deftly sketches Thomas' daily routine of classes, cell group meetings and crossbow factory sit-ins. Moreover, (because of his own experience as a victim of "weightism") he sympathetically discusses the controversy surrounding Thomas' personal struggles with "so-called consumerism," and boldly arraigns Thomas' critics as "elite bourgeois looksists" while hailing Thomas as the Best Friend of the Food Production Worker.

Theology

The Eternal Feminine. A contrite and penitent reworking of his earlier (and clearly sexist) The Everlasting Man. Chesterton, now on the cutting edge of gender theology, moves past the outdated status quo ideals of mere "fairness" which characterized earlier and more timid forms of feminist thought. Instead, he articulates the most up-to-the-minute demands for "a radical re-envisioning of the Sacred in light of Womyn in mortal conflict with patriarchy." This "re-envisioning" goes far beyond a flat political demand for a resignation of the patriarchal Church hierarchy. Chesterton, with his typical insight, goes to the heart of the struggle and calls for the destruction of all male imagery related to the Deity. It is, he insists, "the concept of the Father which has destroyed our primeval bonds with Holy Mother Earth, led to our present environmental crisis and created all oppression." Therefore, Chesterton (in his new chapter "Astarte and Her Consort Moloch: A Sensitive Reappraisal") calls for a fundamental cultural return to ancient, pre-Judaic, earth-centered forms of spirituality and cultic practice designed to promote new sexual paradigms while at the same time reducing human population and restoring harmony with the natural cycles of death and life, sacrifice and renewal. With his characteristic gift for aphorism, Chesterton writes, "When people stop believing in God, they won't believe in nothing; they'll believe in the Goddess."

Alternative Spiritualities (formerly Heretics). Chesterton here attempts to "amend the unfortunate triumphalism of the earlier version of this book by affirming, in the Spirit of Vatican II, the equal validity of all faith traditions." Eschewing a theologically imperialist Church hierarchy, Chesterton writes, "What we want is not a Church that will move the world, but a Church deeply moved by the world: a Church sensitive to the rhythms of earthspirit, womynspirit and manspirit, a Church that incarnates the Inner Light of the Christic dwelling within all equally and without limits."

Orthopraxy. In this companion volume to Alternative Spiritualities, Chesterton gives us the account of his faith journey from irrelevant, heaven-centered Catholicism to his embrace of "direct political action as the sole realistic means of speaking justice to dysfunction." Acclaiming Jesus as a "fellow seeker of the Way" he states his newfound conviction that "only by believing in ourselves as Jesus believed in himself can we experience true Justice."

This list is not comprehensive. Readers further interested in the "New Chesterton" may also want to check local libraries for other recent Chesterton works such as What I Saw in Central America, The Napoleon of Vatican Hill and his upcoming Wisdom-Elder Brown novels. But whatever you do (Chesterton warns us through his editorial staff), stay away from the actual documents of the Second Vatican Council and the hidebound interpretations of the "official" Magisterium. These writings can only be understood by those specially trained to discern the essential "Spirit of Vatican II" amid the cumbersome and unfortunate "letter" of outdated orthodoxy. For as Scripture more or less says somewhere, "'The letter kills, but the Spirit is like an angel of light."