
The Roots of the World
The Remarkable Prescience of G. K. Chesterton
Duncan Reyburn(Author)
Cascade Books (Publisher)
Published on 24. February 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
236 pages
979-8-3852-2609-2 (ISBN)
Description
During his career, the metaphysically minded journalist G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) made a number of remarkable predictions about the future, many of which have come true. He had no science of history or theory of progress, and he vehemently denied that what he was foretelling was inevitable in any way. Yet he was still able to imagine with impressive clarity so much of what has come to pass. This raises an obvious question: How was Chesterton able to be so prescient? In this book, Duncan Reyburn offers an answer by arguing that Chesterton's gift for prophecy resulted from his unique awareness of formal causation, which differs from the typical modern focus on efficient causes and effects. To understand Chesterton's attunement to the formal cause, his work is refracted through the lenses provided by four thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Marshall McLuhan, and William Desmond. These fit together to create a philosophical-theological telescope that we can look through to better see the astonishing world in which we live; as well as, perhaps, some of what might happen next.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
393 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-3852-2609-2 (9798385226092)
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E-Book
02/2025
Wipf and Stock Publishers
€30.49
Available for download
Person
Duncan Reyburn is associate professor in the School of the Arts at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is also the author of Seeing Things as They Are: G. K. Chesterton and the Drama of Meaning (2016).