Orthodoxy – G.K. Chesterton

I’m not an avid reader but in keeping with my stereotypical artistic brain I usually have at least a couple of books on the go. This summer I’ve been reading some good stuff including one of the classics that I go back to every couple of years.

G.K. Chesterton is a favourite author of mine – I love his seemingly casual style of writing that almost conceals these deep, hard-hitting truths until the very last second when they jump off the page. I find myself reading a passage that he’s written, not entirely sure what point he’s trying to make and once the point is made (and made strongly!) I need to go back and re-read the whole setup. Chesterton is a master at convincing the reader to agree with something they would have disagreed at the beginning of the page.

Orthodoxy is a book I’ve read several times but I’m sure it will be a book that will be part of my library for my whole life. It is a quick read but the material is not light. Here is Chesterton’s description of why he wrote the book -

This book is meant to be a companion to “Heretics,” and to put the positive side in addition to the negative. Many critics complained of the book called “Heretics” because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is unavoidably affirmative and therefore unavoidably autobiographical. The writer has been driven back upon somewhat the same difficulty as that which beset Newman in writing his Apologia; he has been forced to be egotistical only in order to be sincere. While everything else may be different the motive in both cases is the same. It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer. 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. The writer regards it as amounting to a convincing creed. But if it is not that it is at least a repeated and surprising coincidence.

With all of the new ideas, new resources, new songs and new opportunities that come along every day sometimes it’s good to go backa few generations and spend some time with the thoughts of a man who had great impact on his culture at a time when the role of the church was in great decline. Hearing some of the things Chesterton says gives me new energy in my walk with Christ and also re-energizes my conviction that communicating the gospel through art is one of the ways our culture will be transformed.