I just finished G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. Easily one of the best books I have ever read. Chesterton is an incomparable genius, and I enjoyed soaking up his brilliant use of language as well as his tremendous British humor and insight.
As I was reading this book, I had the mental image of a train slowing down, like the brakes were on, and I could hear the squealing on the tracks. This book was stabilizing me. My mental train that barrels down through those logical systems and spiritual dead ends was stopping in its tracks, and I couldn't have been happier. I want off this train big time.
Chesterton exposes the fundamental errors of so many modern mental traps: The materialist. The pantheist. The optimist. The pessimist. The stoic. The nihilist. The maniac. And of course, the logician. I have been all of these people. And so has Chesterton. I have faced the cold dead ends of their terrible paths of logic but didn't know how to find another way or if even another way existed. I have stayed up late at night following these thought pattens to their logical conclusions and reeled in despair over the futility they unfolded. Yet something was unsettling about each of them. There had to be more, there must be another story to tell, but it has been hard to make a claim to that.
As my professor says, Chesterton shows a way through the fog. Not that his is the only way, but he suggests a method--a way of going about it.
As you have read sections of this book to me, it became clear that there is deeper learning within.
ReplyDeleteChesterton's style is simple yet profound. Orthodoxy is one of those books and Chesterton is one of those authors that you may be afraid to get into, for the mere fact that you may be compelled to challenge your own beliefs.
It is much more comfortable to stick with what you have stuck with --- thank you very much!
Can I borrow your book?