Heretics: with Study Questions

By G.K. Chesterton

Book Overview

Chesterton's No-Holds-Barred Critique of Man-Centered Philosophy

"We direly need another Chesterton today. ... In a time when culture and faith have drifted even further apart, we could use his brilliance, his entertaining style, and above all his generous and joyful spirit." author Philip Yancey.

The companion to G.K. Chesterton's classic Christian book, Orthodoxy.

What if abook published in 1905 held the key to understanding today's debates about God, atheism, relativism and philosophy?

Are you confused (and perhaps challenged) by the philosophical and religious debates of our time?

Do you need help knowing how to discuss religion and philosophy with your nextdoor neighbor?

Do you want to better understand the world's beliefs through the wit and wisdom of one of Christianity's greatest writers?

G.K. Chesterton's Heretics is for anyone who wants to broaden their understanding of philosophy while staying grounded in God's Word.

G.K. Chesterton wrote Heretics in the early 1900s to address what he considered the heresies of his day, but it soon was overshadowed by his follow-up classic book, Orthodoxy (1908). Chesterton, though, considered the two books companion pieces.

Heretics is as relevant today as it was a century ago.

In Heretics, Chesterton:

Confronts the heresies of his day with his trademark no-holding-back wit: "In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic," he writes, asserting that "heresy" was no longer taboo. "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."

Critiques, by name, the heretics of his day. Among them: H.G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, and Lowes Dickinson. Wells believed "that there are no secure and reliable ideas upon which we can rest." Shaw taught that the "golden rule is that there is no golden rule." Dickinson was a "provocative" supporter of paganism. Chesterton wrote, "The most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe."

Explains his belief in Christianity, in typical Chesterton style. "All the empires and the kingdoms of the world] have failed, because ... they were founded by strong men and upon strong men. But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link."

Chesterton refutes relativism, rationalism, paganism and other man-centered philosophies that were popular during his day -- philosophies that may be even more trendy and prominent in our modern world.

Scroll up to buy and find out why C.S. Lewis himself called Chesterton one of the greatest apologists of his time

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1947935038
• ISBN13: 9781947935037
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Thebiblepeople.com
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Early Review

Just begain reading "Heretics." I wish I had found this book, and Chesterton, 30 years ago when I was 20 instead of now when I am 50. Ideas and actions can take decades sometimes a century or more to "bloom." During 1905, Chesterton identifies errors that have bloomed and guide/justify our day's thinking & action -- runious errors. Can't wait to finish. Should be required reading.

Heretics

A fantastic book by a great writer, highly recommend it for anyone interested in Apologetics, or just fun argument should definitely read it. While this review will hardly do justice to him, Chesterton is amazingly complex, and while sometimes incorrect, offensive, or fallacious, he is always intelligent, witty, and generally has an opinion very much worth listening to. Highly recommended.

An Unorthodox Defense of Orthodoxy

George Bernard Shaw, the subject of one of the essays in this book, once wrote that morals were for the middle class. The lower class couldn't afford them and the upper class could afford to do without them. Modern day "thinkers" assail the Judeo-Christian ethic as irrelevant to any class and pride themselves on their thoroughly contemporary avant-garde world view. How ironic it is that this thoroughly modern iconoclasm has been around for at least 100 years. Chesterton weighs in on the "heretics" of his day who prided themselves in their heretical superiority to conservative orthodoxy. These heretics seem to have had a worldview not much out of step with modern avant-garde thought. Chesterton's critique of these ideas is lucid, lyrical, and logical. The passage of 100 years has obscured the context of much of what he says, but his conclusions are as timely today as they were yesterday.

SPARKLING CHESTERTON

A 1905 collection of twenty Victorian journalistic essays and articles still worth reading, and not merely on historical or nostalgic grounds? Some pieces are of mainly historical interest, but not most. Neither is it a 'religious title', in fact it is nearly irreligious in places. It merely takes issue with arty types like Mr. Kipling, G.B. Shaw, H.G. Wells, and Whistler. It is also vintage Chesterton, at his usual paradoxical, oblique, witty, funny, slapstick, sardonic, jolly, and generous best.It is a positive and happy book, but it was accused of Negativism in its day (Kafka said Chesterton was so full of joy that you might almost suppose 'he had found God'--perverse but honest.) Another exasperated opponent, said that if he was so clever and all-knowing he should write down his own personal positive beliefs. So he did. They are still read today, and many who enjoy 'Orthodoxy' (1908) will enjoy this, its progenitor too, which is impossible to summarize, so I have given a thumbnail of each chapter.CONTENTSChapter 1. Introductory remarks on the importance of orthodoxyThe examined life - meaninglessness of modern subjective attitudes of not owning your own point of view. Decline of respect for reason and rational argument - political correctness, or 'Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions'. To know a man's worldview is to know him. Pernicious effects of subjectivism in literature and the arts.2. On the negative spiritEssential need for positive belief - no society can prosper on negative laws alone. Progress in human rights of liberty, education, free speech, and tolerance are only guaranteed with 'a definite creed and a cast-iron code of morals'.3. On Mr. Rudyard Kipling and making the world smallKipling considerable poet but no true patriot, but proto-fascist. [GKC probably first to spot this.] Worships strength and discipline, empire-building, for their own sake. 'He admires England, but he does not love her'.4. Mr. Bernard Shaw***GOOD***[GKC being good friend of GBS.] GBS brilliant and witty, but hopeless subjectivist. GBS attacks all pretensions as 'every moral generalization oppressed the individual; the golden rule was there is no golden rule'. But then why should we allow Him to make the One Rule that rules them all? Perpetrates errors of sociologist/anthropologist, still with us today.5. Mr. H.G. Wells and the giants***GOOD***Wells' faith in Evolutionism (as opposed to evolution) shown to be false - 'the scientific fallacy...of not beginning with the human soul...but with some such thing as protoplasm'. The demonstrable fact of original sin in the universal existence of selfishness. Wells' Utopia assumes selfishness can be cured by ignoring it, not curing it. 'Heresy of immoral hero-worship' (ie, celebrity).6. Christmas and the aesthetesEssential nature of ritual. Attacks 'The religion of Comte, generally known as Positivism, or the worship of humanity'. Comte's attempt to institute a secular religion - ritual the only