Customer Reviews

Orthodoxy (Moody Classics)

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Chesterton is a classic, who deserves the best in terms of publication and commentary, including footnotes and a proper introduction. The Moody Classics printing has no footnotes, and the editors have chosen to use an introduction by Charles Colson, which does not do justice to Chesterton's prose or to his intellect and originality. The book is probably essential, certainly as much as any book can be said to be essential, especially for readers who want to consider and reconsider Christian faith and Christian culture, from the point of view of a brilliant, wonderously informed, careful and passionate Christian writer, whose love of God and men and women, and good writing, and decency and reason, and life and creation, is palpable on every page.

Lewis is one of my all-time favorite authors and thinkers. So, when I read in his autobiography the impact that Chesterton had on him, I had to pick up a copy of one of his books. I chose this one, and what an introduction it was. It is a wonderful thing to find a new author that you enjoy so immensely.

As the title of my review intimates, Chesterton has all of the intelligence and keenness of mind of Lewis, but with the added bonus of a boundless, cheery sense of humor (not to say, of course, that Lewis does not have a good sense of humor in his own rights). If you read this book without smiling to yourself dozens of times, you are missing something. Chesterton's jabs at his contemporaries, as well as his predecessors, in philosophical thought are at once humorous and severe, all without the slightest hint of mean-spiritedness; a tribute to his sense of paradox.

My one complaint about this edition is the endless typographical errors contained in its pages. I find it appalling that a publishing house would send to print something with so many glaring errors. After the first couple, I thought it to be no big deal. But after the first ten I became a bit put off. If you can overlook the typos, then this edition will suit you just fine. And the errors can in no way detract from wealth of prose, candor, analogy, and humor found within this gem of a book.

I'll be honest and say that a lot of Christian books I have read have been dull or void of passion. This book is neither. I have read a few G.K. Chesterton books and in my opinion this is my favorite of his. This book displays the wonder and mystical side of Christianity through Chesterton's eyes and can get very deep philosophically and also very witty. It has some big words yet most audiences will be able to comprehend what he is saying without getting lost. Its hard for me to clealy explain the whole synopsis but this is very good book and considering the price, you won't lose out by taking a chance and picking up a copy of your own.

I've enjoyed CS Lewis for years and only recently became convinced that I should get some exposure to Chesterton. Like Lewis, CHesterton's writing is very British, and something of a struggle getting through some of it, but he has an excellent manner in putting thoughts forward in a well supported way, and very worthwhile if you are open to understanding his message. It is easy to see why he is so often pointed to by so many. Chesterton wrote for his time and takes to task many of the leading "enlightened" thinkers. His personal honesty in his writing style is very apparent, and his explanations are very clear and well developed. I found the brief auto-biographical background he provided in the book is to be particularly helpful. This is my first intro to Chesterton, and I look forward to reading more, however I believe that annotated versions would be very helpful in being able to appreciate many of the references, expressions, etc.

Chesterton always makes my brain stretch. Not in a bad way, but rather he always seems to take a unique approach to a topic, forcing me to consider an idea from an entirely different perspective. In Orthodoxy he discusses the idea of objective truth. Not the relative truth of "what's true for you is not necessarily true for me" kind of thing. But real, uncompromising, in-your-face truth (of the 2+2=4 ilk). The book is full of lovely Chesterton nuggets (Thinking in isolation and pride ends with being an idiot). If you want some out-of-the-box thinking you'll love this.

G.K. Chesterton says this in chapter four of Orthodoxy:

When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in the middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the worlds as it is..."

They say that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics.

I can think of no better way to describe the prescription for flight test, for the aerospace industry, for aviation and technical leaders.

We must recapture the wonder...the fantasy that we had as children and apply our imaginations to create the future we want rather than the tedious labor of the current machinery. This is the image from my past that focuses the vision for our future.

Definitely a book with British language and locations. Chesterton grants us a look at his journey from atheism to believer and has had a significant impact on others of like disbelief in the foundational Christian meaning for both life now and for eternal joy later. While his writing was for the past generation, it lives today in those whos hearts and minds it has impacted.