Heretics

Famous in our own time as the author of the 'Father Brown' detective stories, Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a highly respected Victorian author, and on his frequent lecture tours met with many 'progressive' and 'free-thinking' philosophies, such as those expounded by H G Wells, Rudyard Kipling and George Bernard Shaw. 'Heretics' is a rebuttal of all such theories, written in Chesterton's inimitable style, a rare mix of humor, wisdom and biting prose. The book is crammed to bursting with profound and paradoxical thoughts: 'only when hope is unreasonable is it useful'; 'worldly ideals are more dangerous than otherworldly ones'; and 'it is only acceptable to be proud about something that is not creditable to oneself'. The publication of 'Heretics' prompted reviewer G. S. Street to declare that he would worry about his own philosophy only after "Mr. Chesterton has given us his." In response, Chesterton penned 'Orthodoxy', his famous defence of Christianity, and the companion volume of this present work.