Chesterton on the Orthodox Faith

I started reading this book on my phone as I found out it came with an epub reader. I then got some book vouchers for Christmas and dumped about $7 to get this in a book. I had read one other book by G. K. Chesterton which I loved, and this one met my expectations. In fact it was one book that I really looked forward in reading.

This book comes as a response to another book Chesterton wrote called Heretics where he refuted others without really putting forward his own world view. In this book he attempts to argue for the rationality of the Christian faith and of all places starts by arguing for fairy tales.

Chesterton is a brilliant writer and for a short period of time I even tried to tweet some of his lines (at least from the from the first 3 chapters although 140 characters sometimes doesn't give his statements much justice). He writes in paradoxes and he has this twisted reason that kinda works. About half way in I did think Chesterton must have been a little mad, but that is what made him so good to read. After reading this book I thought that anyone who was going to enter into some (Christian) religious debate should read this book first, as even though this is about 100 years old the same issues about Christianity are still coming up.

This book is a little autobiographical as Chesterton explains how he came to trust in orthodox faith. He says his rise to the Orthodox faith was like a guy who discovered England only to realise that many other people before him already had. Chesterton did not become Orthodox by learning the faith from the church, but actually by listening and reading things from sceptics of his day and seeing that they didn't have a case. Throughout the book he disagrees with determinism (and Calvinism), pragmatism, evolution, atheism, agnosticism, and argues for reason, free will and fairy-tales. He is quotable and even in the past I have quoted from this book here twice.

I do not think this review had done this book justice. All I have to say is that in 2011 you must read at least one book by G. K Chesterton. You can download Orthodoxy  for free in pdf, word or audio formats and for your mobile device.

Another review of a Chesterton book I have read:
The Man Who Was Thursday