by Nerd42 » May 17th, 2010, 2:34 pm
I'm not trying to make Chesterton Protestant, but Lewis, I think, was much more effective precisely because he tried his best to indulge in controversies within Christian thought as little as possible. In a book that focused on why the Catholics are right and the Protestants are wrong, making the kind of statements Chesterton makes about Catholicism would be quite appropriate, but I think they were inappropriate here.
I think Lewis's image of a hall with many rooms was quite right, especially since he asks people not to find the one that suits them best, but the one with the doctrines that are true. If the Anglican position was correct, he trusted that the holy spirit would lead people to the Anglican position in their own studies Chesterton, on the other hand, uses his Catholicism as a club to beat Protestants over the head in a book that's supposed to be about what's unique to Christianity, not what makes the Catholic version of Christianity correct and the Protestant version incorrect.
The Bible says that for every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. My point is that his venturing into these controversial waters was inappropriately timed, that's all.