Tweet

EMAIL

PRINT

Comments (9)

Related articles and links |  1 of 2

Since he published Orthodoxy in 1908, G.K. Chesterton has inspired Christians and challenged skeptics with his unique wit and wisdom. He delivered biting analysis still relevant today: "A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed." And he composed poignant prose that still touches the heart: "Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." CT editor at large Collin Hansen spoke about Chesterton's legacy with Lyle Dorsett, the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School.

Chesterton was quite witty, and Orthodoxy is packed with pithy quotes. Which is your favorite?

My favorite is Chesterton's understanding of why "I could feel homesick at home." It appears at the end of chapter five, "The Flag of the World." Chesterton wrote, "Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world. I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from God. But now I really was happy, for I had learnt that man is a monstrosity. I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I myself was at once worse and better than all things."

It was this chapter that spoke so clearly to me when I read Orthodoxy at the urging of one of my students at the University of Denver. I was an agnostic, and he was keen on pointing me to Jesus Christ. Although I was quite taken by Chesterton's section on the madness of self-reliance, this "homesick at home" argument absolutely shook the foundation of philosophic materialism I stood on. Materialism was my foundation, but it was never comfortable. Indeed, I never rested there. When Chesterton said that after he became a Christian he finally knew why he always felt he had been homesick at home, the light went on. I recognized that this "longing" for home had driven me to continually seek a more comfortable place to live and companions who could bring me happiness and fulfillment. In fact, the University of Denver was my fifth professional move in seven years. Prior to reading Chesterton, I had begun to assume that I would never find contentment and therefore must settle for a degree of inner desperation. Chesterton, and eventually C. S. Lewis, who admirably addressed the same theme, helped me see that heaven is my home, and Jesus Christ has prepared a place for me there. Oh what blessed hope and peace.

As an apologetic, how does Orthodoxy hold up 100 years later, and where does it feel dated?

Overall it holds up well as an apologetic, but the audience will be limited to people who have a solid grounding in the liberal arts. His frequent allusions to George Bernard Shaw, Herbert Spencer, H. G. Wells, John Henry Newman and others, alas, will be lost on many people today. At least this is the feedback that I get from many people who have read Orthodoxy at my urging.

How has Orthodoxy influenced Christian thinking over the last 100 years?

C. S. Lewis was strikingly influenced by Chesterton's writings. Indeed, Lewis readily acknowledged his indebtedness to Chesterton, and you see that in lines from Mere Christianity such as, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." This theme of longing, which permeates much of Lewis's writing, was influenced by George MacDonald, to be sure, but Chesterton contributed to his thinking as well.

next page... |  1 of 2

November (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52

Displaying 1–5 of 9 comments

See all comments