Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy

by G.K. Chesterton

This book is meant to be a companion to "Heretics," and to put the positive side in addition to the negative. Many critics complained of the book because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. 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. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer. It deals first with all the writer's own solitary and sincere speculations and then with the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology. The writer regards it as amounting to a convincing creed. But if it is not that it is at least a repeated and surprising coincidence.

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Paperback, 168 pages

Published July 30th 2008 by Waking Lion Press (first published 1908)

tags: theology, catholic, spirituality, faith, philosophy, christianity, classics, religion, nonfiction, christian

Book Quotes

“The average pagan, like the average agnostic, would merely say that he was content with himself, but so insolently self-satisfied, that there were many better and many worse ... This proper pride does not lift the heart like the tongue of trumpets; you cannot go glad in crimson and gold for this. On the other hand, this mild rationalist modesty does not cleanse the soul with fire and make it clear like crystal; it does not (like a strict and searching humility) make a man as a little child, who can sit at the feet of the grass. It does not make him look up and see marvels ... Thus it loses both the poetry of being proud and the poetry of being humble.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“But the new rebel is a sceptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then he writes another book (about the sex problem) in which he insults it himself. He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy because they keep it. As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. A man denounces marriage as a lie, and then denounces aristocratic profligates for treating it as a lie. He calls a flag a bauble, and then blames the oppressors of Poland or Ireland because they take away that bauble. The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite sceptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything. It”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Um graveto pode adaptar-se a um orifício, ou uma pedra, a um buraco, por mero acaso. Mas uma chave e uma fechadura são ambas complexas, e, se a chave se ajusta à fechadura, é porque é a chave certa.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Insistindo especialmente sobre a imanência de Deus, chegamos à introspecção, ao autoisolamento, à resignação, à indiferença social - ao Tibet. Insistindo especialmente na transcendência de Deus, chegamos à fascinação, à curiosidade, à aventura moral e política, à indignação justa - à Cristandade. Insistindo em que Deus está dentro do homem, o homem está sempre dentro de si mesmo. Insistindo em que Deus transcende o homem, o homem já transcendeu a si mesmo.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“I had heard that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“A man cannot think himself out of mental evil; for it is actually the organ of thought that has become diseased, ungovernable, and, as it were, independent. He can only be saved by will or faith. The moment his mere reason moves, it moves in the old circular rut; he will go round and round his logical circle, just as a man in a third-class carriage on the Inner Circle will go round and round the Inner Circle unless he performs the voluntary, vigorous, and mystical act of getting out at Gower Street.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Para responder ao cético arrogante, não adianta insistir que deixe de duvidar. É melhor estimulá-lo a continuar a duvidar, para duvidar um pouco mais, para duvidar cada dia mais das coisas novas e loucas do universo, até que, enfim, por alguma estranha iluminação, ele venha a duvidar de si próprio”.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“exactly the part he ought not to assert--himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt--the Divine Reason.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“It is absurd to say that you are especially advancing freedom when you only use free thought to destroy free will.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Um homem não consegue sair do mal mental só por meio de seu pensamento; pois é exatamente o órgão do pensamento que se tornou doentio, ingovernável e, por assim dizer, independente. Ele só pode ser salvo pela vontade ou a fé.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother. Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover that she is a step-mother. The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“...his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large.”

― G.K. Chesterton

topics: Philosophy, Reason

“É sempre muito custoso para alguém defender algo do qual esteja absolutamente convencido, ao passo que é comparavelmente fácil fazê-lo quando se está apenas parcialmente convencido.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“patient" is in the passive mood; "sinner" is in the active. If”

― G.K. Chesterton

― G.K. Chesterton

“The world is not a lodging-house at Brighton, which we are to leave because it is miserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is the less we should leave it.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Ocupar-me-ei do primeiro argumento citado: a ideia de que o Cristianismo pertence à idade das trevas. Quanto a esse ponto, não me satisfaz ler as modernas generalizações: li um pouco de História. E, pela História, verifiquei que o Cristianismo, longe de pertencer à idade das trevas, era o único caminho, através da idade das trevas, que não era sombrio. Era uma ponte brilhante que ligava duas civilizações também brilhantes. Se alguém disser que a Fé nasceu na ignorância e na selvageria, a resposta é simples: não nasceu. Nasceu na civilização do Mediterrâneo, em pleno verão do Império Romano. O Mundo estava repleto de céticos, e o panteísmo era tão claro como o Sol, quando Constantino pregou a cruz ao mastro. É inteiramente verdade que, depois, o navio naufragou: mas é ainda mais extraordinário que o mesmo navio voltou a aparecer novamente, pintado de novo, reluzente e com a cruz ainda no topo do mastro. Esta é a admirável coisa que a religião realizou: converteu um navio naufragado num submarino. A arca viveu sob o peso das águas: depois de termos estado sepultados debaixo dos destroços de dinastias e clãs, levantamo-nos e lembramo-nos de Roma. Se a nossa fé tivesse sido um simples capricho de um império que se desmoronava, esse capricho teria tido, também, o seu crepúsculo, e, se a civilização emergisse de novo à superfície (e muitas delas não emergiram mais!), teria sido sob algum novo pendão bárbaro. Mas a Igreja cristã foi a última vida de uma sociedade velha e foi também a primeira vida de uma sociedade nova. Pegou um povo que estava se esquecendo de como se construía um arco e ensinou-o a inventar o arco gótico. Numa palavra: a coisa mais absurda que se pode dizer da Igreja é aquela que todos temos ouvido dizer a seu respeito. Como se pode afirmar que a Igreja pretende arrastar-nos para a idade das trevas? A Igreja foi a única coisa que sempre procurou libertar-nos dela.”

― G.K. Chesterton

“Nossa ruína mental foi causada por uma razão desvairada, e não por uma imaginação desnorteada. Um homem não enlouquece por construir uma estátua de um quilômetro de altura, mas pode enlouquecer se pensar em construí-la em milímetros quadrados.”

― G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction.

Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out.
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