Jousting with the Devil: Chesterton's Battle with the Father of Lies by Robert Wild

Author:Robert Wild [Wild, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Saint Benedict Press
Published: 2015-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOUR

THE HOLY WAR AND

THE BALL AND THE CROSS

At the beginning of this chapter it will be helpful to make several important distinctions between the Antichrist, the beast, and the dragon in scripture:

The Book of Revelation clearly distinguishes between the three key figures who will arise in opposition to Christ and the Church at the end of time: the Antichrist, the beast, and the dragon (or serpent). Whereas the Antichrist is a man, the beast is a political power that brings war to the earth. It is the dragon who is identified with the devil. There is no ambiguity or confusion in revelation between these three distinct realities.1

In the two novels I will be comparing to Chesterton’s The Ball and the Cross (B&C), the main character is the Antichrist. However, in B&C, Professor Lucifer is obviously not meant to be the Antichrist but Satan: “Now I know who you really are. You are not God. You are not one of God’s angels. But you once were.”2 Wood also sees him thus: “The cleft-bearded Dr. Lucifer represents the mutinous archangel in modern form.”3 My point of comparison is that all three novels are in the apocalyptic genre; and while two represent the Antichrist, and Chesterton’s the Devil, both dark characters employ similar tactics for their deceptions.

It seems that Chesterton knew of these distinctions. He wrote in 1906, during the period he was writing B&C, that “the worst result of popular evolutionism has been this: It has substituted the Beast for the Devil.”4 He is saying, I believe, that in modern conflicts, the world has forgotten the involvement of Satan in evil regimes. Thus, no attention is given to the spiritual combat against the “powers and principalities.” Everything is seen in purely political terms.

THE DEVIL AS MUSE

A fascinating book that will serve as a kind of background to this chapter is The Devil as Muse by Fred Parker.5 I say “kind of” because his main thesis does not really apply to Chesterton. Parker states it thus: “This book explores the notion of a radical tension between the ethical and the aesthetic—the virtuous philosopher and the chameleon poet—through the idea of the Devil as Muse, whereby the creative artist is seen as diabolically sponsored or inspired.” (emphasis mine) If I understand him correctly, his book is about how the two artists he has chosen to consider—Blake and Byron—are inspired, not by the traditional devil who is always the Adversary, but by a devil with more “positive features” according to the authors own imaginative conceptions. Not only are they “inspired” by a heterodox conception of the devil, but Parker also attempts to show that these authors personally identified with their more sympathetic understanding of the devil, and that the authors’ personalities were influenced by their conceptions.

To bring out his muse theory he contrasts the demons of Blake and Byron with Milton’s demon in Paradise Lost. Milton clothed the devil with the traditional characteristics. However, he laid the groundwork for other more “sympathetic” understandings of

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