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Orthodoxy

G K Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific English writer who distinguished himself and achieved popularity in a wide range of literary genres and topics. He was born in London, and raised in an Anglican household (though he became Roman Catholic in 1922). Despite thoughts of suicide early in his life, he possessed a thoroughly exuberant personality which allowed him to attempt and succeed in his literary ventures: he was a journalist; he wrote political and philosophical essays, poetry, short novels and mystery stories, biographies on authors (such as Dickens and Tolstoy) and religious-historical figures (such as Thomas Aquinas); and he maintained friendships and lively correspondence with other authors such as Hilaire Belloc and George Bernard Shaw. His Christian and theological writings (Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, etc.) evince sincere belief, and a recognition of the need for religion and the Christian faith to reform and heal society.

An engaging and autobiographical account of the author's encounter with the Christian Faith.

This short theological book, published in 1908, is one of Chesterton's most abiding and often-read works. It is a sequel to the earlier Heretics (1905), in which he criticized many of the philosophies currently in vogue, and offers a positive "alternative philosophy". Chesterton writes in an autobiographical manner, rather than presenting strict historical or doctrinal formulation and analysis. His purpose is to "attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it... It deals first with all the writer's own solitary and sincere speculations and then with all the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology". It is a short book of nine chapters, written with Chesterton's usual insightful, engaging, and whimsical style.

Theology & Doctrine

Christian Faith