Those Heartless Social Scientists
HOMELESS VOYEURS?
Chesterton thought a man could only understand himself — and Mankind — by going home, and that there are two ways for a man to go home: He might get home by staying home, or he could walk around the whole world until he came back to the same spot.
A home is different from a mere house; a home is the oldest of communities — it comes before straw, sticks, bricks, and politics. The home is best explained as a place of the heart — the place of our bearing and the place where we receive our bearings.
Chesterton’s advice to the man who would seek to understand Man by traveling about the world and observing other peoples is that it would do him well to be snowed in on his own street, where he would “step into a much larger and much wilder world [than he had] ever known.” This will come as no surprise to those who understand the home to be the place where we have been cast with many people we did not choose. The home is the wildest of kingdoms.
My home is such a kingdom. It has a population of six, and comes with a budget, a nutritionist, a foreign policy, 07a crucifix, a garden, transportation, education, music, quarrels, games, births, picnics, funerals, livestock, technology, laundry, sewing, a fence, a few gallons of milk a day, and loyalty.
You May Also Enjoy
Reviews of The Prayers of St. Teresa of Avila... Hope in the Gospels... Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse?... John Crowe Ransom's Secular Faith... Poor in Spirit: Modern Parables of the Reign of God... Spheres of Liberty: Changing Perceptions of Liberty in American Culture
Nancy Pelosi's insolent braying awoke the sleeping giant: Some 30 bishops issued correctives to her erroneous comment about when life begins.
The Vatican has decided to draft a new "instruction," necessitated by "confused reactions" to the Pope's universal indult.