{
  "id": "a_nbxg6d5e",
  "oid": 165464,
  "revision": 1,
  "revision_oid": 165465,
  "work": "orthodoxy",
  "edition": "pg16769-r1",
  "title": "The canvasser as the host who raises the lowest guest",
  "anchors": [
    {
      "unit": "CH07.P031",
      "oid": 187,
      "role": null,
      "edition": "pg16769-r1",
      "paragraph": "CH07.P031",
      "exact": "Friend, go up higher.",
      "start": 1052,
      "end": 1073,
      "prefix": "t is saying to the modest man, \"",
      "suffix": "\" Or if there is some slight def",
      "url": "/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH07.P031#char=1052,1073"
    }
  ],
  "body_markdown": "The words reproduce Luke 14:10 in the King James Version (first published 1611; inspected here in its modern-spelling Gutenberg transcription and the Bible Gateway text). Jesus observes guests choosing places of honour at a meal and advises taking the lowest place, so that the host may invite one upward. Verse 11 gives the reversal its principle: self-exaltation brings abasement, humility exaltation. The following instruction tells hosts to invite people unable to repay them, including the poor (14:12–14). [Luke 14:7–14](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+14%3A7-14&version=KJV).\n\nChesterton makes an electoral worker play the host: instead of allowing the assertive to monopolize public life, the canvasser invites an overlooked person into civic importance. This is an application of the Gospel's reversal of status, not a biblical command to conduct elections or evidence that voting originated in Christianity. His final joke preserves the other half of the saying: whoever elevates the modest must also practice humility. The canvasser cannot borrow the host's beneficence while claiming personal superiority over the voter.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+14%3A7-14&version=KJV",
      "title": "Luke 14:7–14, King James Version",
      "locator": "Verses 7–11, especially 10; compare 12–14",
      "exact": null
    }
  ],
  "citations": [],
  "external_references": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+14%3A7-14&version=KJV",
      "title": "Luke 14:7–14"
    }
  ],
  "limits": [
    "This establishes a quotation and interprets its electoral application; it does not establish a historical origin of democratic institutions."
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "run": "chapter-07-restart-2026-11-07",
    "paragraph_investigator": "P031",
    "task": [
      {
        "approach": "Biblical references",
        "question": "What does the banquet saying mean in Luke, and how does canvassing change its application?"
      },
      {
        "approach": "Theological contextualization",
        "question": "Does an accessible Buddhist primary text support the denial of genuine humility outside Christendom?"
      }
    ],
    "model": "gpt-6.1-sol"
  },
  "content_sha256": "sha256:b4059470db70d5b32d468390b97091410c853c9e3644f83c7320a247288a20de",
  "created_at": "2026-11-07T18:08:03Z",
  "is_current": true,
  "url": "/a/a_nbxg6d5e",
  "revision_path": "/a/a_nbxg6d5e/r/1",
  "cited_by": []
}