Orthodoxy (Hendrickson Christian Classics)
£3.04
A much-needed voice from the past - People often come to read Orthodoxy having heard of the influence it had on CS Lewis. Chesterton was something of an intellectual father to Lewis when it came to Christianity, and you can find echoes of Chesterton s ideas in Lewis writings if you know what to look for. But anyone approaching Chesterton from this angle would immediately be struck by the difference in style and approach between the two men, with Lewis initially looking much more like the teacher and Chesterton like the excitable and slightly wayward pupil. Orthodoxy, however, rightly remains a classic of Christian apologetics, and the reader who attempts it will be rewarded with one of the most enjoyable and muscular defences of faith ever written by a layman.The book is Chesterton s attempt to explain what he believed in. Having previously written a book criticising just about every other philosophy on offer, he wrote Orthodoxy as an answer to critics who felt he should finally state his own position, which he proceeds to do in his typical, impromptu manner. Chesterton s style is immediately engaging, but does perhaps take a little getting used to for a 21st Century reader. A typical mistake is to take his light-hearted and jovial approach to almost everything as evidence of a lack of seriousness, but a generous reader will soon see the benefits of the lighter touch. His disingenuous, almost rambling style seems so inconsistent with the seriousness of his subjects, that his insights have the added power of surprise and his arguments only hit harder for appearing to come from nowhere. His prose may come tightly-packed with rhetoric, but he never indulges rhetoric for its own sake, and he always denied the charges of flippancy or shallowness which came from critics who couldn t see past the poetry and the humour. Contrary to instinct, it shouldn t prejudice our opinion of a thinker if they choose to treat serious matters with a smile rather than a frown.The reason his thinking is still relevant today is that he didn t challenge atheistic science or reason on their own grounds. He didn t start out with a philosophical programme to prove the existence of God or the immortality of the soul, and so wasn t vulnerable to specific advances in science or logic. Instead he goes straight for the philosophies which people have built upon them and attacks the unquestioning acceptance of the atheistic worldview, replacing scepticism about God with scepticism about every attempt to remove him. He did understand the science of his day, and could be perfectly rational himself, but he wasn t ashamed to admit that faith really does require a leap. Despite the fact that this usually draws cavalier dismissals from atheists, he kept the argument firmly where it belongs: not among this or that set of scientific debating points, but in between the collision of the opposing worldviews of Materialism and Theism. Only if you keep the debate here can you ask the awkward questions about whether Materialism is consistent with free will, whether morality can really mean anything without God, whether scientific method could ever discern the supernatural, and whether one can really live a philosophy that may well be self-destructive. These are questions that you can t dismiss with a lecture on evolution or psychology, and they are questions on which today s most vocal atheists are suspiciously quiet. Materialism, Chesterton says, has its own articles of faith and its own contradictions, and a leap away from atheism is not a leap away from reason, evidence and sanity, but away from a position too problematic to be sustainable.But far from being a purely negative book dealing only with criticisms of Materialism, the main part of the book is concerned with showing that Orthodox Christianity, regardless of whether or not it is true, is by far the best philosophy on offer for anyone who truly cares about morality, politics, psychology and intellectual good health. I won t attempt a summary here, but these chapters are required reading if you need to broaden your view of the place of religion in the world. They will explode any notion that religion is best left for church and the private lives of individuals. Of course, Chesterton did think Orthodox Christianity true, and in the closing chapters offers his reasons for believing it. Having all the appearance of lightness and even naivety, these pages raise questions that should keep an honest atheist awake at night.The current intellectual climate likes to make all debate about religion into an uneven fight, with science on one side and delusion on the other, and no doubt at all over who the winner will be. Chesterton can at least teach us how to draw the battle lines correctly, and show us Christianity in its true fighting colours (as well as showing up the chinks in the armour of science and its associated philosophies). Total certainty doesn t seem to be a luxury either side can afford, but Chesterton was someone who made his decision and never looked back. Happy to concede that much of religion was a mystery, he embraced it because of its power to explain so much in life which the scientific worldview, taken to its logical conclusions, can only destroy. His closing pages deal with the almost suicidal assaults launched by rationalists who barely understand that their attacks are only destroying the things they value most. The secularists have not wrecked divine things, he wrote, But the secularists have wrecked secular things, if that is any comfort to them.
Pointedly prolix - Chesterton is hard to take at times, his irritating metaphors and play on words can grind one down. But, what is extraordinary is that this book is so relevant to the now. He has grasped the nettle of modern relativism and said: no, accipio crucem Christi, I believe in the Trintiy of princely might: it is utterely rational for me to so believe. A definite must for anyone who wishes to deal with the issues of modernity and faith.
Not the classic I expected.... - I bought this book with a great sense of anticipation - it is often cited and comes highly recommended. The edition I read had a foreword by Philip Yancey. The book itself is, as expected full of wit, humour and some excellent observations and arguements. And yet in many places for me it misses the mark. His observations on Calvinism for example are shallow. I also found the book to be quite dated. Having said that there are some real gems in it. Maybe I will like it more if I read it again. I did get some great quotes from it and I leave you with one of them - But all conservation is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again, that is, you must be always having a revolution. GK Chesterton - Orthodoxy - Hodder and Stoughton 1999 - p.168
Essential Reading - This is a fascinating book, which, like all good things, requires initial effort to adjust oneself to the very particular style of the author and an awareness of it s place in time, i.e. the beginning of the nineteenth century. What is so refreshing about this book is the novel approach of the author to important aspects of the faith. It is insightful, humorous and moving. I would absolutely recommend this timeless work to any denomination of Christian.
Life Affirming - Viewed as Chesterton s master work, this book affirms that Catholic orthodoxy is the real orthodoxy, and all attempts to substitute various (sometimes worthy) alternatives are dooomed to dangerous failure. The world needs to look again to Chesterton in these dark times.