Christmas With G.K. Chesterton: A 5-Day Advent DevotionalMuestra

Christmas is utterly unsuited to the great future that is now opening before us. Christmas is not founded on the great communal conception which can only find its final expression in Communism. Christmas does not really help the higher and healthier and more vigorous expansion of Capitalism. Christmas cannot be expected to fit in with modern hopes of a great social future. Christmas is a contradiction of modern thought. Christmas is an obstacle to modern progress. Rooted in the past, and even the remote past, it cannot assist a world in which the ignorance of history is the only clear evidence of the knowledge of science. Born among miracles reported from two thousand years ago, it cannot expect to impress that sturdy common sense which can withstand the plainest and most palpable evidence for miracles happening at this moment.

G.K. Chesterton, G.K.'s Weekly (1933)

In Celebration of the Utter Unsuitability of Christmas to the Modern World

The future Chesterton speaks of is our present. Our world, in various ways, is the fulfillment of his grim vision: a world unmoored from tradition, set adrift on the ever-changing tide of fad and fashion (he reminds us elsewhere that “fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions”). Modern culture is infatuated with all that is shiny and new and noteworthy. Witness the cult of technology. Behold the ever-expanding elasticity of “expressive individualism.” Watch as the masses pile onto every bandwagon promising truth and justice in the name of progress (marvel not when the wagon goes off a cliff). Puffed up with “chronological snobbery” (to borrow C. S. Lewis’s phrase), modernity peers over its shoulder with contempt on the ignorant, unenlightened ages of the past.

Chesterton poses the question: What place does Christmas have in a world like ours? Blind adherence to science often requires the willful “ignorance of history.” The “great communal conception” of Communism refuses to acknowledge the sacred individuality of human beings made in the image of God. The “healthier and more vigorous expansion of Capitalism” has little to gain from a holiday that values giving over receiving. The “social future” of tomorrow, promising peace and prosperity for all (so long as you ebb and flow with the changing societal tides), might go so far as to mock the humble beginnings of a tradition as selfless and unproductive as Christmas.

Though modern Western culture still carves out time for Christmas, “the holidays” have largely become crass and commercialized—a marriage of unbridled consumerism and vague humanitarianism rather than a celebration of a savior who came to save us from ourselves. Chesterton once observed, “Moving step by step, in the majestic march of Progress, we have first vulgarized Christmas and then denounced it as vulgar. Christmas has become too commercial; so many of these thinkers would destroy the Christmas that has been spoiled, and preserve the commercialism that has spoiled it.”

If this all sounds rather bleak, may I suggest that what makes Christmas “utterly unsuited” to the modern world is what makes it so worthy of recognition? Christmas is gloriously out of step with the times, for it outlasts the times. It champions obscurity over visibility. Humility over hubris. Divine mercy over human effort. Today, let us raise our glasses, voices, trees, and stockings in honor of the glorious unsuitability of Christmas. Let us savor the sheer irrationality of it. Shout with joy at the blatant absurdity of it. Like all that is of God, it is blasphemy to the narcissist. An insult to the hedonist. A farce to the self-reliant and self-consumed. Hallelujah. Pour yourself another glass of sherry. Help yourself to another slice of cake. Praise God that that which was “born among miracles reported from two thousand years ago” still makes miracles in human hearts today (though the voices of this age “can withstand the plainest and most palpable evidence” of such a thing). Christmas is utterly unsuitable to the modern world, making it indispensable to the church.

Reflect:

1. Consider Paul’s words about “the foolishness of God being wiser than men” and “the weakness of God being stronger than men.” How might this idea affect your observance of Advent and Christmas?
2. Think of some traditions you might incorporate this season that are “utterly unsuitable” to the modern world.
3. How might you resist the commercialization of Christmas this year?

We hope you enjoyed this 5-day sample of Winter Fire: Christmas With G.K. Chesterton. Click here to purchase the full-book and read the remaining 26 devotionals and enjoy festive party games, recipes, poetry and more!