The Humor of the Universe

I confess that in the past, when I would think of the Christian writers of the early 20th century, I supposed that their works would be dry, stale, and....well, boring. Books of theology are not usually the ones I want to pull of the shelf for an enjoyable read. But now I have encountered G.K. Chesterton, and found that he is one of the most hilarious, yet profound writers I have ever read. He presents theology, but not in it's typical form. He defends GOD by attacking the modern day thoughts that oppose His truth, but Chesterton does not simply lay out an argument. He tells a story. It's a story not of predictable, laid out facts, but one of mystery and humor.

Chesterton believed that GOD was in fact funny. He did not see the unanswered questions of the universe as things that separate us from GOD, but as things that should draw us to Him. He looked at GOD's creation as being full of "surprises" left for us to discover, not as a great Ruler separated so far above His creation, who would see His incomprehensible ways and fear. Chesterton looked at the unexplainable and laughed.

Glimpses of this belief are found in The Man Who Was Thursday. In one instance, the policeman is speaking about how ironicly brilliant is the fact that the five men who would oppose Sunday were the five men whom Sunday allowed on the Council. Sunday used them to confound each other, knowing how they would act. This reminds me of the question of why GOD allows evil men to rule, men who oppose Him. Chesterton says through the policeman, "Don't you know Sunday? Don't you know that his jokes are always so big and simple that one has never thought of them? Can you think of anything more like Sunday than this, that he should pull all of his powerful enemies on the Supreme Council, and then take care that it was not supreme?" (72) I can almost hear Chesterton chuckling as his plot unfolded by his pen. One cannot understand the "whys" of GOD, but one can accept them as ridiculously amazing. We can accept Him in joyful ignorance, or deny Him in angry supposing.
In Chapter 14, Chesterton again uses Sunday to show the happiness found in GOD's mysteries, in His surprises, in His ways. Bull says, "...I can't help liking old Sunday. No, it's not an admiration of force, or any silly thing like that. There is a kind of gaiety in the thing, as if he were bursting with some good news. Haven't you sometimes felt it on a spring day? You know Nature plays tricks, but somehow that day proves that they are good-natured tricks. I never read the Bible myself, but that part they laugh at is literal truth, 'Why leap ye, ye high hills?' The hills do leap - at least they try to...Why do I like Sunday?...how can I tell you?...because he's such a Bounder." (100). When GOD is seen through eyes like these, the response is a desire to come closer, to know Him better, to live in grattitude, and to laugh along with Him. Trying to explain all He is and all He does in reason is like trying to explain why something is so funny you laugh until you cry to the person who has just entered the room and missed the joke. It doesn't make sense when you try to say it again. You just "had to be there."
I believe Chesterton had one of the loudest laughs of all.