Wells, Chesterton, and a Theology of Semi-detached Reading

This article engages with the work of John Plotz on our experience being caught between two worlds as we read—a world fiction that partially absorbs us, and actual world, to which remain attached. Noting lack attention pays religion he writes about semi-detachment, I respond by developing a theology semidetached reading. To think through contribution offers, turn works fiction: H. G. Wells’s “The Plattner Story” (1896) K. Chesterton’s The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908). In doing so, recognize very different ways in Wells Chesterton tease out strange mix secular religious is so important for those want understand modern world. As go argue, paying allows register particular narratives people traverse these seek hold threads meaning together. reading can also shed light are configured, well helping us navigate points conflict move them.