Chesterton's Theology of the Arts

Abstract

This article is a study of the theology of the arts of the English author G.K. Chesterton (1874‐1936). It explores his ideas about the relationship between theology, art, and literature, and the resonance he discerned between religion and art. It discusses key themes of his theological engagement with the arts, including the innovative use he made of his theology of creation, his understanding of created limits, his idiosyncratic ideas about defamiliarisation, and the role of his sense of wonder and of mystery in his treatment of the arts. The article goes on to investigate one of Chesterton's unusual interests, the grotesque: it discusses his enthusiasm for the grotesque in relation to this theology of the arts. Then it argues that his theology explains his relationship with his literary and artistic context, exploring his relationship with aestheticism, symbolism and decadence, and impressionism in his early career, and with modernism later. Finally, it draws some tentative conclusions.