The 20th Century Writers Who Have Been Most Influential in the Development of My "Outlook" and Worldview are Ivan Illich, Hannah Arendt, Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, Neil Postman and G.K. Chesterton
Dear Janet
The French Revolution was an unprecedentedly world-shaking event.
Whereas the American Revolution was perpetrated chiefly by wealthy oligarchs, in the French Revolution, the people themselves took to the barricades to topple the monarchy (which was joined at the hip with complacent Catholicism).
And there is no denying that Robespierre’s subsequent reign of terror was frightful in the extreme.
But in order to destroy the existing (and routinely ungodly) union of church and state, such sweeping revolt (and revoltingness) may have been necessary.
Whereas the United States has reverted to fused church-state “monarchy”/theocracy, the French people still take to the streets (aka barricades) to make sure their government doesn’t get too uppity.
GK Chesterton, for whom I have highest regard, was so close to French Catholic writer-pundit-historian, Hilaire Belloc, that, together, they were called The Chesterbelloc.
And despite Chesterton‘s particular kind of orthodoxy (which causes many people to mistake Chesterton fir a stem-to-stern conservative), he was in fact an utterly staunch supporter of the French Revolution, despite its murderous approach to Catholic clergy. (I just discovered this article detailing Chesterton's praise for Robespierre! https://catholicherald.co.uk/ch/happy-bastille-day-chesterton-says-be-robespierre/
In any event, I thought that - in light of our shared interest in hagiography - you’d be intrigued by the following article.
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