Heretics - Softcover

Chesterton, G. K.

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 153369169X ISBN 13: 9781533691699

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

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This superb collection of twenty essays by G.K. Chesterton sees the author rail against things in society he views as unfair and discriminatory.

Starting with the terms 'Orthodoxy' and 'Heretic', Chesterton derides modern society for having denigrated these words to the extent that they are synonymous with being wrong, rather than being right. The attitude of modernity is argued to be both hypocritical and ridiculous - simultaneously lauding and destroying certain artists who would hold unusual beliefs and act on them.

A quote from the first essay: "In the fifteenth century men cross-examined and tormented a man because he preached some immoral attitude; in the nineteenth century we feted and flattered Oscar Wilde because he preached such an attitude, and then broke his heart in penal servitude because he carried it out. It may be a question which of the two methods was the more cruel; there can be no kind of question which was the more ludicrous. The age of the Inquisition has not at least the disgrace of having produced a society which made an idol of the very same man for preaching the very same things which it made him a convict for practising."

Characterised by an easily digestible style, ready use and exposure of paradox, and the use of wit and humour, Chesterton's fiction and non-fiction writings on the topics of human behaviour and wider society remain both relevant and poignant to this day.

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About the Author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936), better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox." Time magazine has observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." Chesterton is well known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown, and for his reasoned apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognized the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton, as a political thinker, cast aspersions on both Progressivism and Conservatism, saying, "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton's "friendly enemy" according to Time, said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius." Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Cardinal John Henry Newman, and John Ruskin. (Wikipedia)

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