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    Orthodoxy
    Orthodoxy
    Orthodoxy
    Audiobook6 hours

    Orthodoxy

    Written by G. K. Chesterton

    Narrated by John Lee

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    About this audiobook

    Written by G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy addresses foremost one main problem: How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it? Chesterton writes, "I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance." Chesterton likens orthodox Christianity to a man who set out in a boat from England and was quite excited to land on an island only to soon discover he had, in fact, landed on England. "I am the man who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before." This is Chesterton's autobiography. It is his story of finding the familiar and unfamiliar in Christianity. It is his hunt for the gorgon or griffin and in the end discovers a rhinoceros and then takes pleasure in the fact that a rhinoceros exists but looks as if it oughtn't.

    In Orthodoxy, Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of "practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 25, 2011
    ISBN9781452671338
    Author

    G. K. Chesterton

    G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was a prolific English journalist and author best known for his mystery series featuring the priest-detective Father Brown and for the metaphysical thriller The Man Who Was Thursday. Baptized into the Church of England, Chesterton underwent a crisis of faith as a young man and became fascinated with the occult. He eventually converted to Roman Catholicism and published some of Christianity’s most influential apologetics, including Heretics and Orthodoxy. 

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    Reviews for Orthodoxy

    4/5

    726 ratings13 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great reader, loved what Chesterton had to say!
      I recommend it!
    • 1/5
      I found very little of value in this book. The thought provoking pieces were the importance of romantic engagement with the world and not merely rational analysis, finding magic and wonder in our experience of the world. Also insightful was the importance of balance and humility in philosophical systems. However even when these good points were made they were so heavily shrouded in endless layers of repetitive metaphors that it is very hard to follow the point. Throughout the book the author seems to think that giving more and more illustrative metaphors that it will somehow add strength to his point, but for me it did not.

      There is also a very eurocentric arrogance with which the author addresses Buddhism and Asian cultures. He demonstrates no real understand of either Buddhism or Asian cultures and then attempts to criticize them, all he really does is demonstrate is own ignorance while wrapping it in five layers of tedious and unnecessary metaphor.

      Finally his arguments are often mere assertions, anecdotes and black white fallacies. The author attempts to obscure this again with mystifying metaphor and repetitive illustrations, but I found almost all his arguments wanting.
    • 4/5
      Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" and Lewis' "Mere Christianity" are classics of contemporary Christian apologetics. Both write to a similar audience, namely, secular academics. Lewis' appeal was broader, however, for he was reaching out to those people influenced or educated by these academics. Consequently, these books are full of reason and logic but are devoid of Bible quotes. This might dismay some fundamentalists, but this type of apologetic is absolutely necessary. Just as a Muslim will not convince a Christian regarding Islam by quoting the Qu'ran, so, in most cases, a Christian will not convert a secular academic by quoting the Bible. The appeal must be made on common ground, in this case, reason and logic. In this regard, Chesterton succeeds.That being said, I give him only 3 1/2 stars because of his rambling, time-sensitive style. It is easy for an American reading in the 21st century to become completely lost in Chesterton's quips and references to late-modernity intellectuals.Lewis' broader appeal makes him more accessible to Chesterton, so I recommend "Mere Christianity" over "Orthodoxy" to the average 21st century American, whereas I recommend "Orthodoxy" to those who are educated in late 19th and early 20th-century intellectualism.Both books are useful for Christians in developing apologetic skills and for non-Christians, especially seculars, in understanding a traditional, intellectual, and non-fundamentalist brand of Christianity.
    • 4/5
      A thoughtful and fascinating account of the author's move from agnosticism, in his teens, through to a profound faith in God, and subsequent adoption of the Christian faith.

      GK Chesterton uses analogies to good effect, and describes his gradual search for meaning in life, looking at objections to God posed by atheists, and - one at a time - realising that they were all based on fallacy.

      It took me several weeks to read this book; some of it was a bit long-winded, and there was much to ponder. I found his thought processes a bit convoluted in places, yet reassuring and often refreshing.

      He wrote the book, apparently, to answer his critics... and in doing so produced an excellent apologetic for his beliefs. Recommended to anyone who is happy with a somewhat lengthy - and, inevitably, dated - discussion of faith from a fully rational and logical standpoint .
    • 5/5
      Chesterton at his philosophical best. He presents his personal arguments for the existence of God and skewers all the puffed up, empty-headed modern philosophers and worthless aristocrats and oligarchs. His wit is as fresh and sharp as Mark Twain's.
    • 5/5
      brilliant!
    • 5/5
      I'm in the peculiar (and rather frustrating) situation of being a book lover living in a foreign country with no access to an English library and (temporarily, I hope) in a financial situation that prevents me from buying books. Therefore, I've had to fall back on the collection of books that I already own. I've just recently finished reading G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy for the 3rd time. If you're familiar with Chesterton then you well know his penchant for paradox and mirth. This writer had a knack for showing familiar things in a startling new light.Orthodoxy doesn't disappoint. It constantly amazes and stimulates from the first page to the last. It's as good as a book on religion and philosophy can get.I won't write about this book what's already been written in other reviews below. I'll only add that in my 3rd reading of this book I came across a passage that somehow I had forgotten after my first 2 readings. This passage is a prime example of how Chesterton can astonish:"All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself is it probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary . . . The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity; but to my inactivity . . . it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising . . . The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they especially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."That's from a chapter titled 'The Ethics of Elfland' and I think that's a good example of the flavor of the entire book.
    • 4/5
      Although Chesterton included many references to his contemporaries and to the issues of his day, most of them now obscure, the clarity of his writing and the force of his argument made this an interesting and surprising read for me.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant. One to read again and again.
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful exploration of one man's faith. Well thought-out, and yet passionate and personal, Orthodoxy shows how Chesterton explored the issues of faith, came to a mighty conclusion, only then to realize that his conclusion was what Christianity had been preaching for centuries.The book is a heavy one, despite its short length, but should be studied carefully by anyone who might be looking seriously at the issue of religion.
    • 4/5
      Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" and Lewis' "Mere Christianity" are classics of contemporary Christian apologetics. Both write to a similar audience, namely, secular academics. Lewis' appeal was broader, however, for he was reaching out to those people influenced or educated by these academics. Consequently, these books are full of reason and logic but are devoid of Bible quotes. This might dismay some fundamentalists, but this type of apologetic is absolutely necessary. Just as a Muslim will not convince a Christian regarding Islam by quoting the Qu'ran, so, in most cases, a Christian will not convert a secular academic by quoting the Bible. The appeal must be made on common ground, in this case, reason and logic. In this regard, Chesterton succeeds.That being said, I give him only 3 1/2 stars because of his rambling, time-sensitive style. It is easy for an American reading in the 21st century to become completely lost in Chesterton's quips and references to late-modernity intellectuals.Lewis' broader appeal makes him more accessible to Chesterton, so I recommend "Mere Christianity" over "Orthodoxy" to the average 21st century American, whereas I recommend "Orthodoxy" to those who are educated in late 19th and early 20th-century intellectualism.Both books are useful for Christians in developing apologetic skills and for non-Christians, especially seculars, in understanding a traditional, intellectual, and non-fundamentalist brand of Christianity.
    • 5/5
      A great work by a great writer. I wish I could have his faith!
    • 5/5
      This book is simply amazing. I've already written a lengthy review of it, and i'll post that here soon.