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Orthodoxy | 
 enlarge | Author: G.k. Chesterton
Publisher: Wildside Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 2987710
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 140
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 1557424012
Dewey Decimal Number: 239
EAN: 9781557424013
ASIN: 1557424012
Publication Date: October 5, 2005
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Condition: New American book. Printed on demand and shipped within the US in 4-7 days (expedited) or about 10-14 days (standard). Standard can occasionally be slower so we advise using expedited if quicker delivery is important!
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Amazon.com Review
If G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith is, as he called it, a "slovenly autobiography," then we need more slobs in the world. This quirky, slender book describes how Chesterton came to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy his personal emotional needs, in a way that would also allow him to live happily in society. 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. The whole book is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best. The final chapter, called "Authority and the Adventurer," is especially persuasive. It's hard to imagine a reader who will not close the book believing, at least for the moment, that the Church will make you free. --Michael Joseph Gross
Product Description
The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel. When some time ago I published a series of hasty but sincere papers, under the name of "Heretics," several critics for whose intellect I have a warm respect (I may mention specially Mr. G.S. Street) said that it was all very well for me to tell everybody to affirm his cosmic theory, but that I had carefully avoided supporting my precepts with example. "I will begin to worry about my philosophy," said Mr. Street, "when Mr. Chesterton has given us his." It was perhaps an incautious suggestion to make to a person only too ready to write books upon the feeblest provocation. But after all, though Mr. Street has inspired and created this book, he need not read it. If he does read it, he will find that in its pages I have attempted in a vague and personal way, in a set of mental pictures rather than in a series of deductions, to state the philosophy in which I have come to believe. I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 The Apostle of Common Sense is Alive & Well! September 21, 2008
G.K. Chesterton continues to charm and fulfill our quest for unvarnished, plain talk reminders of right, light and the persuasiveness of beauty in truth. A classic to return to time and again for references to affirm a solid moral compass.
Chesterton's Humor and Perspective September 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
G.K. Chesterton has a down to earth perspective and sense of humor that is uncommon to most Christian writing today. He is willing to pick on himself, and admits to making arguments with faulty logic at some points, but is still a collosal genious, and is a known early influence of C.S. Lewis. If you have already read C.S. lewis, you can see some of Chesterton's thoughts comming through in his works, having read this book.
"A soldier surrounded by enemies... He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine." - G.K Chesterton from "Orthodoxy"
Christianity Vol. 2 September 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While Chesterton dedicates this book to his mother, he claims that George Slythe Street is the books inspiration and creator. That is, G.S. Street was one of many critics to present an opinion about Chesterton's Heretics, and happened to have presented the opinion to which Chesterton responded. When on the first page Chesterton states that it was incautious of Street to provoke an individual that is all too ready to write books, and in the final sentence of the first chapter claims that he would write Street another book if he needed clarification with regard to a topic only touched upon by Chesterton, it quickly becomes clear that Orthodoxy is yet another shining example of Chesterton's mirth applied to frequently solemn subject matter. Orthodoxy, as Chesterton appears to agree, is, however, the appropriate conclusion to the work he began with Heretics. If Heretics presented all that is wrong, Orthodoxy can rightly be seen as presenting the standard by which Chesterton deemed such philosophies heretical. To truly appreciate either of the aforementioned titles, both should be read as if they were a singular work.
In Orthodoxy, Chesterton does justify his position maintained throughout Heretics in a manner as uniform as he might have been able to conjure. Throughout the work Chesterton utilizes his own experiences and thoughts to illustrate and, perhaps, demonstrate his seemingly inevitable arrive at truth. At times it almost seems as if Chesterton slips into irrelevant stream of thought tangents but never fails to reconcile his intended point, illuminating the necessity of what might have otherwise seemed entirely unnecessary. In fact, Chesterton masterfully builds what he claimed is not a properly thorough defense of Christianity into what might be one of the most poignant apologetic works ever. He does so in a way that makes Orthodoxy read like a suspense novel in that the entire effort bears its timeless fruit in the last few pages, if not in the last sentence, after supplying almost innumerable pieces of information that appeared just unrelated enough to ensure that the final piece would act as a blazing beacon of a keystone. While Chesterton might have failed to present that tangible evidence, that scientific process by which the claims of Christianity can be undoubtedly proved, he clearly and boldly presented that proof which every Christian exists for; the proof that every Christian can verify, albeit not as gracefully. While Chesterton's The Everlasting Man might be the work that he is best known for, Heretics and, especially, Orthodoxy are magnificent demonstrations of Chesterton's ability to cast light on the eventual obvious reality and significance of everything.
 Orthodoxy August 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Chesterton is difficult to read because he makes references to things and places that I do not know about but his work is still good reading.
If you don't get his point just keep reading and you soon will because he gives so many examples that sooner or later you will understand one and it becomes clear.
Prolix but worth the effort July 23, 2008
Chesterton is hard to take at times; his irritating metaphors and play on words can grind one down. But, what is extraordinary is that this book is so relevant to the "now". He has grasped the nettle of modern relativism and said: "no, accipio crucem Christi; I believe in the Trintiy of princely might": "it is utterely rational for me to so believe". A definite "must" for anyone who wishes to deal with the issues of modernity and faith.
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