Father Brown - model of many paradigms

Great that these fantastic stories are making prime time viewing in Australia this year
Model of the modern detective drama,  this brilliant original work is more than skin deep in its associations . Like all good art,  it says something about things on the edge of reason ; the elements of beauty and both good and evil in tension ;  Why innocent people die and why good people do bad things .
How then does he marry the hard with the fun and beauty of people you meet in those stories? Father IMO does it , as we all should do,  by seeking the truth above all else .
As Chesterton knew so well , you should never let a lot of words get in the road of the point  Life can be fun and serious at the same time  ,but don't whatever you do bore people with lumbering logomachy .
What makes his stories work ?
You may think you would need to risk  a bit of boring unreality to talk  fun and serious together , Strangely as he knew so well,  you need a bit of fantasy to watch or read his stories  . Gilbert was a great fan of fantasy ( see chapter 4 of his Orthodoxy ) but he wrote drama and story mostly to show that real life can have the joy of fantasy in it .
His point is that you can't see much if you don't investigate .  Fantasy does at least two things mere rhetoric can't
--draws you in to what can appear to be dull and obvious on the surface .
--short circuits mere argument
-- presents the complex in a simple picture format
---can unhook us from the heavy chains of reason alone
--can demonstarte truths in a succinct way  ( think of the picture of the Emperors New Clothes )We don't know
Chesteraon wants everyone to be their own detective.

Take the average story

Father takes all the story to find all the relevant facts for him to challenge the audience with . The church and other people ( even highly qualified ) beside him are - to be frank , a bit too quick to judge .  . Fiction and art are great for dealing with big topics- the missing bits too. 

Lessons even for science 

To make his point about not being stuck in a rut with mere reason Chesterton like Eisentein  talked bout equations we can know and things we can only fanaticize about ,

Fantasy is alright up to a point  but we need real boundaries to our beliefs .. lucky for us they both siad somthing similiar for example about the cretaor . we  have only 2 choices about God . either our view of god is that he smaller tan us or He is infact bigger  
What about a real life problem then like the internet ?
All scientists know that little is achieved without hard and pointed ( throw half the facts out ) research . You can get lots of the facts off the 
Back on prime TV ( ABCTV ) these stories of GKChesterton have provided the frame for yet another revival of interest in his words .Not before time . While you will struggle to find one of his books in your local library ( in Austalai where i have tried) his works are regularly republished .
So what do we make of this anachronistic and predictable priest and and his ongoing attraction .
 FB takes all the story to find all the relevant facts for him to challenge the audience with . The church and other people ( even highly qualified ) beside him are - to be frank , a bit too quick to judge . Gilbert came to faith by digging deep . Fiction and art are great for dealing with big topics- the missing bits too. Some Christians today are quite good at punching through with a story and the hope that is needed to keep us acting in a positive way in our own patch..http://churchofthemasses.blogspot.com All scientists know that little is achieved without hard and pointed ( throw half the facts out ) research . You can get lots of the facts off the 





His plays are so popular that the latest editions have temodern writers plagerizing the frame but changing the content - not soemthing they would get away with in the host of centuries when literature like authorship was respected . If we can't suport authors in principle don't expect APRA to suppot your performance rights in the futue . The implications for those who used to make their living out of the Arts is celar