Life in death. True God and true man. Three persons, one nature.
The Christian religion is full of startling juxtapositions that challenge and captivate reason.
Little wonder, then, that one of its finest apologists - Gilbert Keith (“G.K.”) Chesterton - won renown for his keen sense of irony and conundrum. “The riddles of God," he observed over a century ago, "are more satisfying than the solutions of man.” And surely he was a riddler of God, who confounded and delighted the English-speaking world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with his extraordinary arguments for Christ and Christian culture.
Yet G.K. was no mere quipster. On the contrary, he was a philosopher of the ordinary, an "apostle of common sense," as Dale Ahlquist puts it. His paradoxical formulations don’t stump and humiliate the intellect, but drive it to profound reflection by recasting worn ideas in surprising yet familiar terms.
That’s why he’s a fitting patron for our school. We too wish to articulate timeless truths so that they startle and fascinate.
In this ongoing series, “G.K. Today,” we’ll explore the life, wit, and wisdom of our namesake. We hope that, in doing so, you come to appreciate the portly sage of Beaconsfield, whose genius and joy inspire our mission and form our identity.
