Orthodoxy

Gilbert K Chesterton is probably best known today for his 'Father Brown' novels, but he was one of the Victorian era's most influential authors, with poetry, essays, and over 100 books to his credit. 'Orthodoxy' is Chesterton's defence of traditional Christianity, and charts his own journey from skepticism to acceptance in a series of beautifully written and densely argued chapters. The book is subtitled 'The Romance of Faith', pointing up one of the author's main claims: that the materialist's preoccupation with causation has robbed us of the mystery and enchantment of existence, and that it is myth and fairy tale that provide a more satisfying and fuller explanation of the Cosmos and our place within it. Orthodoxy was written as a companion book to 'Heretics' (also available from Parchment Books), and both works are acknowledged as having made a strong positive impression on such twentieth century writers as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.