G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy Is Still in Tune With Our Times

G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton wrote his spiritual autobiography, Orthodoxy, in 1908.  The amazing thing is how relevant his arguments and insights are today.

I think there is an unfortunate tendency in our society to always be focusing on the 'new.'  The newer truth is always to be preferred over the older, even if this flies in the face of the definition of 'truth.'  Let's face it, we give incentives to make this happen.  A good example is in academia, where the surest way to fame is to posit the newest and most unique proposal- the more controversial the better.  One sees this very clearly in the 'historical Jesus' debate.   Jesus was married, Jesus was gay, Jesus didn't exist, Jesus was a philosopher, Jesus was... these proposals make headlines and the proposers famous.  Since scholars utter them, newspaper men assume they are credible.  There is little fame to be gathered from defending the 'traditional' line.  But the 'traditional' line exists precisely because after this weeks scandalous announcement is forgotten, the 'old' position still stands.  But that isn't reported, so no one ever hears that.

I say all this in context of Mr. Chesterton because many people will instinctively dismiss the writings of a man that are a shade over 100 years old.  The truth, however, is that nothing he confronted then has actually gone away.  He confronted the materialistic view of Man in his own life, determining finally that Christianity offered the truest account.  He stood against the Darwinists, the eugenicists, the relativists, and the liberal theologians.  All these are still here and with us.  The only difference is that they have been re-packaged and re-presented.

And to a generation which thrives on the 'new and improved' such re-packaging is astoundingly effective.

Effective and extremely dangerous, for it means that the bloody mistakes of the past loom just over the horizon, and we are (as a society) rushing headlong into making them.

So, I submit G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy as a corrective.  It is not an argument for Christianity per se.  It is his account of how he himself became a Christian.  A reading today will show clearly that the same path to faith could be made, as all of today's objections and dangers were present when he wrote.

Buy Orthodoxy at Amazon.com.

Anthony Horvath is the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries, a pro-life speaker, author, and Christian apologist.