Orthodoxy (1908) is a book by G. K. Chesterton that has become a classic of Christian apologetics. Chesterton considered this book a companion to his other work, Heretics, writing it expressly in response to G. S. Street’s criticism of the earlier work, ‘that he was not going to bother about his theology until I had really stated mine’. In the book’s 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 it, 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.
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G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was an English writer, philosopher and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brown. He decided to follow art as a career, and studied at the Slade School, where, while attending or not attending to his studies, he met Ernest Hodder-Williams, who encouraged Chesterton in his writing. At his request he reviewed a number of books for the Bookman and found himself launched on a profession he was to follow all his life. Probably his most famous stories are those of Father Brown, but he wrote much about every conceivable subject under or beyond the sun. His fiction works would sell well, with titles such as ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’, a thriller combining espionage and metaphysics, and ‘The Everlasting Man’, which chronicles mankind’s spiritual journey.