Heretics (Dover Books on Western Philosophy) (original: 1905; edição: 2006)

GR-3

Heretics is an essay collection that showcases Chesterton in his most condensed and quintessential form - playful, engaging and British. The Prince of Paradox is able to turn every question on its head, and while his method isn't necessarily philosophically rigorous, it always churns out valuable and unexpected insights. The essays vary wildly in length and topic, but the vindication of the Christian worldview is always at stake. Chesterton is especially insightful when he demonstrates Christianity to be a fulfillment of paganism and when he pinpoints the Christian foundations of so many anti-Christian movements. Ultimately all things converge at the cross in one way or another, and G.K. Chesterton really has an eye for that, sniffing out the connections like a bloodhound. It's a joy to to observe him in action.

This is a little tome I'll certainly be revisiting, highlighting, and quoting from for many years in the future. A succulent delight. ( )

This collection of essays was more of a mixed bag for me and nowhere near as wonderful as [b:Orthodoxy|87665|Orthodoxy|G.K. Chesterton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174077015s/87665.jpg|1807543]. (Much of that probably had to do with my failure to catch turn-of-the-twentieth-century references.) However, the chapters I liked were indeed wonderful (such as "On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family"), and I'll be able to reread [b:Orthodoxy|87665|Orthodoxy|G.K. Chesterton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174077015s/87665.jpg|1807543] now with a better appreciation of what he was about. I'd certainly still call it essential reading for any Chesterton fan. ( )

Chesterton was a jovial, good-natured man, known for his raucous laughter and his love for naps and good beer. But Chesterton was also criticized for his joy, particularly criticized for how many jokes he made at his opponents’ expense. Heretics exhibits that style of jovial criticism, as in its pages Chesterton contests the philosophies and the philosophers of his day, but does so with wit and flair.

The chapters of this book are each devoted to a different writer or thinker of Chesterton’s day, as he tears down their ideas one at a time. Some names are recognizable today, while others have disappeared into the forgotten past.

I give this book a rating of 3 out of 5 with some regret, because I found great enjoyment in its pages. But the primary weakness of the book is its strong ties to the past; many of the ideas and persons described within are no longer known to today’s society. While the chapter on H. G. Wells still carries some interest for today’s reader, there is little need for us to dwell on the weaknesses of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

As to the book’s strong suits, I thought the opening to be one of the most profound I have ever read. Chesterton described our modern world turned on its head, as illustrated by our use of the words “orthodoxy” and “heretic”:

"The word 'heresy' not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word 'orthodoxy' not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. All this can mean one thing, and one thing only. It means that people care less for whether they are philosophically right. For obviously a man ought to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical."

Chesterton also wrote profoundly about the modern tendency to focus on evils and weaknesses, without pointing men and women toward any idea of what is good: “The human race, according to religion, fell once, and in falling gained knowledge of good and of evil. Now we have fallen a second time, and only the knowledge of evil remains to us.”

I could continue to share dozens more quotes — the Kindle tells me I’ve highlighted 89 different passages in the book — but instead I encourage you to read Heretics yourself.

This book will require more labor to read than any of today’s books, but the effort is worth your time. Chesterton was a brilliant social critic, and a fantastic wordsmith. If you are up for the challenge, Heretics will provide you with handfuls of pithy quotes, a picture of Chesterton’s coherent Christian worldview, and an example of how to winsomely critique the false ideas of your peers. It has not the accessibility of C. S. Lewis or even of Chesterton’s own Orthodoxy, but Heretics is a fascinating, if more difficult, read. ( )

Book itself: unfortunately, I got to the introduction only after reading it through; knowing that this book came before Orthodoxy, and that it was written by 1905, would have been useful throughout the reading.

Nevertheless, Chesterton plows forward in this book in his unique style, often turning conventional wisdom on its head as he looks at things from a quite different perspective.

The book is loosely about the "heresies" of many of the popular figures of Chesterton's day-- G. B. Shaw, Kipling, and even many of the political figures of the day. Chesterton, as a Catholic, ventures forth with a creative defense of the Christian viewpoint/system in light of the growing influence of modernism.

Both Chesterton and C.S. Lewis have provided useful apologetic material for our present day, and Chesterton's material has one benefit-- he writes these things before either WWI or WWII, while Enlightenment triumphalism and modernism were reaching their full effect and not dented by the relativism that would seep in after the horrible years.

Many of his comments are quite good and worth hearing out; the reader will likely find many quotables in this text, since Chesterton, if nothing else, is eminently quotable.

Sometimes he goes a bit far; he is quite wed to English superiority, and the past century has proven some of his predictions wrong. Much of his material presupposes an understanding of turn of the century England and its empire, and thus many of his references lose a modern audience. Nevertheless, he clearly saw the challenges and the fallacies of Enlightenment triumphalism and the modernist movement afoot. As the last Romantic, Chesterton might just help us find a way forward through the philosophical wreckage of our own day.

Kindle edition: I had few difficulties with this ebook. A few spelling mistakes that might be on account of the OCR. Make sure that you go back to the beginning and read the introduction, since Chesterton's references are quite time-specific. ( )