Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
3 Rating(s)
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Orthodoxy

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 6 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/25/2011

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

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.

About G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the most influential English writers of the twentieth century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography,Christian apologetics, fantasy, and detective fiction. Chesterton is well known for his reasoned apologetics, and even those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian and came to identify such a position with Catholicism more and more, eventually converting to Roman Catholicism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton's "friendly enemy" according to Time magazine, said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius."


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gwen on December 15, 2011

I have to think of Chesterton as happy nitroglycerin. This book sends your head up into the clouds while driving your feet deep into the earth. It spins you dizzier than you've ever been, yet makes you walk straighter than you've ever walked. Read this first in 2007, again in 2011.......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on January 22, 2022

This was my umpteenth time reading Orthodoxy. For years I had the audio version on my iPod Shuffle. Hilariously it played the chapters out of order, but it didn't really matter. I listened to them over and over again. it was fun to go back and read it in print again. And as other of my friends have......more

Goodreads review by Fr.Bill on July 25, 2007

This is an absolute must for either Catholics or Protestants, as Chesterton addresses an aspect of mere Christianity (it's profound and monumental common sensensicalness!) in a way that sparkles with wit, humor, and intellectual derring-do. Incidentally, if you set yourself to reading it out loud, yo......more

Goodreads review by Owlseyes on October 10, 2021

"And though St John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators" "It was natural, perhaps, that a modern Marxian Socialist should not know anything about free will" "The new scientific society definitely discourages men from think......more

Goodreads review by John on March 11, 2007

imagine walking into a dangerous and violent bar with the biggest, baddest ufc champion ever to grace the octagon. or walking into a house party with the hottest date ever. or entering a church basketball tournament with an nba caliber ringer on your team. i'm guessing that's what it would have felt......more