The Crossing Ball

In his book The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton, the staunch Catholic polemicist made some intriguing comparisons between two distinctly separate and contrary worldviews: Both are characterized, by him as a ball and a cross. The former model, that of a ball, represents, what can best be described as materialism; a belief that nothing exists outside of the observed processes of nature ('what you see is what you get'). The latter, the cross, represents the religious, particularly Christian, doctrine of transcendence; a world that, as far as we are concerned, is constantly changing. The first is static, the second dynamic. What Chesterton did with these two symbols of mutually exclusive ideas was to compare and contrast them. The ball is unchanging. It is static, always returning to the same place, over and over again. Seasons follow seasons that are exactly the same as before. On the other hand, the cross is expanding, stretching out in diverse directions infinitely; never occupying the same space more than once.

What Chesterton suggested was that our world, symbolically, is like this. Although now, it is like a ball, self-contained and static, it is being made like heaven, always changing and infinitely dynamic. The ball is being stretched into a cross from within.This is what religion is like in contrast to a solely secular, naturalistic view of the world. Like the model that Chesterton offered us in his book, there is really no progress occurring in this world. We go from one thing to another and back around again. The only advancements that are made are through the hearts of men and women by God, and thus unseen. All other events are just re-occurrences of 'the same ole' things', just repackaged for the next generation of living beings.

Contributed by:~Robert Henry

Send in your articles for free publication

Part of the Dream Weave Walk network