Orthodoxy

by G.K. Chesterton

It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it.

for whose intellect I have a warm respect

personal way, in a set of mental pictures rather than in a series of deductions,

postmodern?

I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.

rich mullins song?

This at least seems to me the main problem for philosophers, and is in a manner the main problem of this book.

astonished at the world and yet at home in it?

answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance.

Any one setting out to dispute anything ought always to begin by saying what he does not dispute.

If a man prefers nothing I can give him nothing.

we need this life of practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure.

We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable.

I do not see how this book can avoid being egotistical;

how it can avoid being dull.

Dulness will, however, free me from the charge which I most lament; the ch...

light sophistry is the thing that I happen to despise m...

I know nothing so contemptible as a mere paradox; a mere ingenious defenc...

invent a sophistry every six minutes. It is as easy as lying; because it is lying.

I never in my life said anything merely because I thought it funny; though of course, I have had ordinary human vainglory, and may have thought it funny because I had said it.

is this possible? funny meaning odd not humourous. not coming up with wierd stuph just for sake of mysterious confusion.

regard it (very justly, for all I know), as a piece of poor clowning or a single tiresome joke.

For if this book is a joke it is a joke against me.

no reader can accuse me here of trying to make a fool of him: I am the fool of this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne.

When I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all Christendom.

I did try to be original; but I only succeeded in inventing all by myself an inferior copy of the existing traditions of civilized religion.

I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

gradually learnt from the truth of some stray legend or from the falsehood of some dominant philosophy, things that I might have learnt from my catechism--if I had ever learnt it.

pedantic

the central Christian theology (sufficiently summarized in the Apostles' Creed) is the best root of energy and sound ethics.

When the word "orthodoxy" is used here it means the Apostles' Creed,

slovenly

Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true.

The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums."

believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter.

Actors who can't act believe in themselves; and debtors who won't pay.

Complete self-confidence is not merely a sin; complete self-confi...

"Well, if a man is not to believe in himself, in what is he to believe?"

Modern masters of science are much impressed with the need of beginning all inquiry with a fact.

The ancient masters of religion were quite equally impressed with that necessity.

They began with the fact of sin--a fact as practi...

Whether or no man could be washed in miraculous waters, there was no doubt at any rat...

certain religious leaders in London, not mere materialists, have begun in our day not to deny the highly disputable water,...

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology ...

Reverend R.J.C...

The strongest saints and the strongest sceptics alike took positive evil as the starting-point

huh??

as all thoughts and theories were once judged by whether they tended to make a man lose his soul,

all modern thoughts and theories may be judged by whether they tend to make a man lose his wits.

To the insane man his insanity is quite prosaic, because it is quite true.

In short, oddities only strike ordinary people. Oddities do not strike odd people. This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time; while odd people are always complaining of the dulness of life.