Orthodoxy (book)
{{Short description|1908 book by G. K. Chesterton}}
{{Infobox book|
| name = Orthodoxy
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Cover of 1909 Edition of Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.png
| caption = Cover of the 1909 edition
| author = G. K. Chesterton
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| genre = Christian apologetics
| pages = 299
| release_date = 1908
| media_type =
| publisher = The Bodley Head
| preceded_by = Heretics
| followed_by =
| oclc = 1299383669
| wikisource = Orthodoxy
| external_url = https://archive.org/download/orthodox00ches/orthodox00ches.pdf
| external_host = Intenet Archive
}}
{{Conservatism UK|Works}}
Orthodoxy is a 1908 book by G. K. Chesterton which he described as a "spiritual autobiography". It has become a classic of Christian apologetics.{{Cite web |title=The Un-Apologist {{!}} Christian History Magazine |url=https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/chesterton-un-apologist |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=Christian History Institute |language=en}}
Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics, which was a collection of essays aimed at refuting prevalent secular views of his time and defending the Christian orthodoxy.{{Cite web |last=Ahlquist |first=Dale |date=2010-07-13 |title=Lecture 8-Heretics |url=https://www.chesterton.org/lecture-8/ |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton |language=en-US}} Orthodoxy was written expressly in response to G. S. Street's criticism of Heretics. In it, Chesterton states that "[Street] was not going to bother about his theology until I had really stated mine".{{Cite book|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1301201h.html#ch7|title=Autobiography|last=Chesterton|first=G.K.|publisher=Hutchinson & Co.|year=1936|chapter=VII: The Crime of Orthodoxy}} In the preface, Chesterton states the 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." In Orthodoxy, Chesterton presents an original view of Christian religion. He sees it as the answer to natural human needs – the "answer to a riddle" in his own words – and not simply as an arbitrary truth received from somewhere outside the boundaries of human experience.{{cn|date=March 2023}}
Summary
The book chronicles Chesterton's personal journey to adopting a Christian worldview. Rather than rationalizing alleged paradoxes, Orthodoxy instead embraces them as evidence for the worldview's validity.{{Cite web |title=Work info: Orthodoxy - Christian Classics Ethereal Library |url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/orthodoxy.html |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=www.ccel.org}} The first chapter establishes the view that human needs innately conflict, and, along with Chapter 8, "The Romance of Orthodoxy", it explains Chesterton's belief that the Christian worldview is most effective in both explaining and satisfying those disparate needs.{{Cite web |title=Chesterton's Orthodoxy |url=https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/264/chester.htm |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=www3.nd.edu}}
History
Chesterton began writing the book in response to Street's 1905 challenge, titled "Mr. Chesterton",{{cn|date=October 2024}} and it was first published in 1908.{{Cite web |title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16769/16769-h/16769-h.htm |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=www.gutenberg.org}} The book was written when Chesterton was an Anglican. He converted to Catholicism 14 years later. Chesterton chose the title, Orthodoxy, to focus on the plainness of the Apostles' Creed, though he admitted the general sound of the title was "a thinnish sort of thing". Chesterton's choice to focus on the Apostles' Creed made Orthodoxy
Popular reception
Orthodoxy was influential in the conversion of Theodore Maynard to Roman Catholicism,{{cite book|last1=Allitt|first1=Patrick|author-link=Patrick Allitt|title=Catholic Converts: British and American Intellectuals Turn to Rome|date=2000|publisher=Cornell University Press|pages=177–178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wO4HRt1361UC&pg=PA177|access-date=24 September 2016}} as well as in the ordination of Canon Bernard Iddings Bell.{{Cite book|title=Beyond Agnosticism|last=Bell|first=Bernard Iddings|publisher=Harper & Brothers|year=1929|pages=4}} In the magazine The Atlantic, critic James Parker recommends the book thus: "If you've got an afternoon, read his masterpiece of Christian apologetics Orthodoxy: ontological basics retailed with a blissful, zooming frivolity, Thomas Aquinas meets Eddie Van Halen."[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/a-most-unlikely-saint/386243/ James Parker, "A Most Unlikely Saint," The Atlantic Magazine, April 2015 Issue]
Notes
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External links
- {{Wikiquote-inline}}
- {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/g-k-chesterton/orthodoxy}}{{Gutenberg|no=16769|name=Orthodoxy}}
- {{librivox book | title=Orthodoxy | author=G. K. Chesterton}}
- {{wikisource-inline|Orthodoxy}}
- [http://www.nd.edu/%7Eafreddos/courses/264/chester.htm Outline of Orthodoxy]
- [http://librivox.org/orthodoxy-by-gk-chesterton/ Audio recording of Orthodoxy] at Librivox
- [https://ad-fontes.org/g-k-chesterton-orthodoxie-eine-handreichung-fur-die-unglaubigen-fe-medienverlag-2022/ On Orthodoxy] on German [https://ad-fontes.org/ ad-fontes.org]
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{{G. K. Chesterton}}
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Category:1908 non-fiction books
Category:Books about Christianity