Publisher's Synopsis
A classic of Christian apologetics, the branch of Christian theology which seeks to offer reasoned defenses for Christianity against its objectors, G. K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" is one of the author's most enduring works. A self-described pagan and agnostic in his youth, Chesterton describes in this work how he came to believe in the importance of his own personal belief in Christianity. As he describes in his preface to the book, "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 all the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology." Meant as a companion to Chesterton's "Heretics" upon its first publication in 1908, this book makes the compelling argument that one needs faith to live happily in society. This edition is revised for the contemporary 21st century American reader. The original manuscript was given a new edit based on 2018 writing standards. There are well over 1400 edits to the original manuscript, however, extreme care was taken to not alter the mood, style, or intellect of the author, G.K. Chesterton. Most of the edits are subtle, dealing with American English spellings of words such as "colour" to "color" and "sceptic" to "skeptic" Other edits include 2018 punctuation standards and edits for clarity and conciseness. Here is an example: Original Text: When some time ago I published a series of hasty but sincere papers, under the name of "Heretics," several critics for whose intellect I have a warm respect (I may mention specially Mr. G.S. Street) said that it was all very well for me to tell everybody to affirm his cosmic theory, but that I had carefully avoided supporting my precepts with example. Revised Text: Some time ago, I published a series of hasty but sincere papers, under the name of "Heretics," Several critics for whose intellect I have a warm respect (I may mention Mr. G.S. Street especially) said that it was all very well for me to tell everybody to affirm his cosmic theory, but that I had carefully avoided supporting my precepts with example. This edition also includes well over 100 annotations putting the people and places cited in the work into context and to give the reader more insight into the thinking of the author.
