The Roots of the World

During his career, the metaphysically minded journalist G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) made a number of remarkable predictions about the future, many of which have come true. He had no science of history or theory of progress, and he vehemently denied that what he was foretelling was inevitable in any way. Yet he was still able to imagine with impressive clarity so much of what has come to pass. This raises an obvious question: How was Chesterton able to be so prescient? In this book, Duncan Reyburn offers an answer by arguing that Chesterton’s gift for prophecy resulted from his unique awareness of formal causation, which differs from the typical modern focus on efficient causes and effects. To understand Chesterton’s attunement to the formal cause, his work is refracted through the lenses provided by four thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Marshall McLuhan, and William Desmond. These fit together to create a philosophical-theological telescope that we can look through to better see the astonishing world in which we live; as well as, perhaps, some of what might happen next.