Orthodoxy

‘Orthodoxy’, first published 1908; is Chesterton’s spiritual autobiography. Subtitled, ‘The romance of faith’, Chesterton declares that people need a life of ‘practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure.’ ‘Everlasting Man’, his other overtly Christian work, appeared in 1925. It was seen as a rebuttal to HG Well’s ‘Outline of history’ and CS Lewis called the book, ‘the best defence of the full Christian position I know.’ Before both of these, however, in 1905, came ‘Heretics’ – in which Chesterton brought his wit and vigour to the works of leading writers of the time like Nietzsche, Shaw, Yeats, Ibsen and HG Wells. All three of these works are an attack on the perceived materialism and pessimism of his age. Chesterton, with his utopian ideals and sense of the big picture, could not abide pessimism. 

GK Chesterton was a colourful and loved personality in a literary England which included George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell and HG Wells, all of whom he enjoyed debating with. Known for both his wit and warmth, he wrote: ‘If the arms of a man could be a fiery circle embracing the whole world, I think I should be that man.’