| |
Shop
| |  |
|
Best Sellers | | Home The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 1: Heretics, Orthodoxy, the Blatchford Controversies (Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton) | |
|  | |  | | | The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 1: Heretics, Orthodoxy, the Blatchford Controversies (Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton) | | | | | | | |
List Price:
| $19.95 | |
Our Price:
| $17.05 | |
You Save:
| $2.90 (15%)
| | Shipping: | Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. | |
*Shipping:
| |
| | | SKU:
008987007951 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 4 left in stock, order soon! | | |
|
| | Description | The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. 1, contains three of Chesterton s most influential works. In Heretics Chesterton sets forth one of the most telling critiques of contemporary religious notions ever. The Blatchford Controversies are the spirited public debate which led to the writing of Heretics. Then, in Orthodoxy, Chesterton accepts the challenge of his opponents and sets forth his own reasons for accepting the Christian Faith. Author: G. K. Chesteron Contents: Heretics, The Blatchford Controversies, Orthodoxy Format: 397 pages, paperback Publisher: Ignatius Press ISBN: 9780898700794 | |
| | Product Details | | Author: | G. K. Chesterton | | Paperback: | 398 pages | | Publisher: | Ignatius Press | | Publication Date: | 1986-02 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0898700795 | | Package Length: | 7.9 inches | | Package Width: | 5.2 inches | | Package Height: | 1.1 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 5 reviews |
| |
| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 Worth the Price for Orthodoxy Alone Mar 16, 2010
If you're Christian, interested in Christianity, or even an intellectually honest atheist, you should not go through your entire life without reading this book. Heretics is a good warm-up, where Chesterton takes on the Rationalists and "Free-Thinkers" of a hundred years ago one chapter at time - some more entertainingly than others.
But Orthodoxy is where the meat really hits the grill in this volume. Why so? Well, it's best to let Chesterton do the talking. Sink your teeth into this:
"That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already; but that God could have his back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents for ever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point--and does not break.
[I]n that terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay, (the matter grows too difficult for human speech,) but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist."
There are stretches of exposition where Chesterton has to set up passages like those above, but they are necessary, and well worth the time to get to something as good as this.
I'm a very big C.S. Lewis fan, and it's obvious that Lewis absorbed Orthodoxy, and put his own special brand of apologetic touch on "Mere Christianity."
If you like having to go back and read a paragraph over because the language and the content were *that* good, you will enjoy this volume.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Chesterton Fan Jul 30, 2009
This book is a must for anyone who is a Chesterton fan, or interested in Christian apologetics. "Orthodoxy" outlines
GKC's own spiritual development in a number of well reasoned arguments. "Heretics" is the thought provoking prelude to "Orthodoxy" and the "Blatchford Controversies" are the famous spiritual duel which occurred in the London newspapers between Blatchford and GKC.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Where is the Chesterton of today? Apr 29, 2008
A hundred years ago in England, religion was under attack for being an obsolescence, an obstruction to the realization of human potential, the province of the unenlightened.
Along came Chesterton, irrepressible optimist and genial adversary (foes GB Shaw and HG Wells were counted among his many friends) who masterfully - some would say dizzyingly - used paradox to stand the arguments of the anti-religious on their heads.
This particular volume of GKC's invaluable work has much to recommend: 1) a collection of material that nicely encapsulates the controversy (HERETICS, wherein he points out the short-sightedness of his adversaries' positions, the unmatched ORTHODOXY, which set forth his own philosophy, and BLATCHFORD, a resource containing the seeds of the foregoing two books), 2) a wonderful introduction by David Dooley that describes the context and milieu of post-Victorian England, and 3) a high-quality sewn soft-cloth binding.
The drawback to Chesterton is that, as a journalist, his work does have a noticeable connection with the time of its original publication (in this case, 1904-1908)*. What is striking is how glaringly relevant the underlying issues he addresses are to our own time.
*For those who find this distracting, there are Annotated Editions of both Orthodoxy and Heretics available through Amazon.com
3 of 35 found the following review helpful:
 Circle Talk at its Best Mar 02, 2008
This book is both dull and magnificent. Chesterton's writing style is brilliant even though often his writing is pointless. Like a trial lawyer engaged in circle talk he says a mouthful but at the same time, although eloquent, it is a mouthful of nothing. Much like a gorgeous flower it is best to view it than ingest it. So this book too is better lightly read than seriously studied.
114 of 114 found the following review helpful:
Chesterton's most famous work, and some oft-forgotten gems Mar 31, 2002
This volume, the first in Ignatius Press's _Collected Works_ of Chesterton series, contains what is probably G. K. Chesterton's most famous work, _Orthodoxy_.What many people do not know is that Orthodoxy was written only at the end of a long debate in the British press. Chesterton had been making a name for himself in English journalism for attacking the Spirit of the Age in turn-of-the-century England; his critics (rather justly) claimed that it was unfair for Chesterton to attack others' beliefs without stating what he himself believed. _Orthodoxy_ was the result. This volume allows the reader to trace the story from the beginning, in the so-called "Blatchford Controversies", through the critique of Chesterton's contemporaries in _Heretics_ to its culmination in _Orthodoxy_. _Orthodoxy_ is definitely the star of the volume, but there are treasures to be found in the other works as well. Knowing something about the figures mentioned in _Heretics_ does help, but is not strictly necessary, as their heresies are alas still with us. In my opinion, this volume is the perfect entre into Chesterton's thought, and would make a valuable edition for anyone concerned about clear thinking in regards to life, the universe, and everything.
| |
| |
| |  | |  |
|
Recently Viewed | You may also like ... |
