title: Orthodoxy
author: G.K. Chesterton
description: "Whenever I feel my faith going dry again, I wander to a shelf and pick up a book by G.K. Chesterton."<br />--from the foreword by <b>Philip Yancey,</b> author of <i>What's So Amazing About Grace?</i> and <i>The Jesus I Never Knew<br /></i><br />"My favorite on the list [of top 100 spiritual classics of the twentieth century] is Chesterton's <i>Orthodoxy.</i> It offers wonderful arguments for embracing religious traditions, but it also has humor you don't typically find in religious writing."<br /><b>--Philip Zaleski,</b> author and journalist<br /><br />Named by <i>Publisher's Weekly</i> as one of 10 "indispensable spiritual classics" of the past 1500 years.<br /><b><i>--Publisher?s Weekly<br /><br /></i></b>"Chesterton's most enduring book.... Charming."<br /><b><i>--World<br /></i></b><br /><br /><br /><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i> --<i>Review</i><br /><br />"Whenever I feel my faith going dry again, I wander to a shelf and pick up a book by G.K. Chesterton."<br />--from the foreword by <b>Philip Yancey,</b> author of <i>What's So Amazing About Grace?</i> and <i>The Jesus I Never Knew<br /></i><br />"My favorite on the list [of top 100 spiritual classics of the twentieth century] is Chesterton's <i>Orthodoxy.</i> It offers wonderful arguments for embracing religious traditions, but it also has humor you don't typically find in religious writing."<br /><b>--Philip Zaleski,</b> author and journalist<br /><br />Named by <i>Publisher's Weekly</i> as one of 10 "indispensable spiritual classics" of the past 1500 years.<br /><b><i>--Publisher?s Weekly<br /><br /></i></b>"Chesterton's most enduring book.... Charming."<br /><b><i> --World<br /></i></b><br /><br /><br /><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>
zlib_text: G. K. CHESTERTON:  
  THE APOSTLE OF COMMON SENSE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  DALE AHLQUIST
  
  
  G. K. CHESTERTON:  
  THE APOSTLE OF  
  COMMON SENSE
  
  
  IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
  
  
  © 2003 Ignatius Press, San Francisco  
  All rights reserved  
  ISBN 978-0-89870-857-8 (PB)  
  ISBN 978-1-68149-042-7 (EB)  
  Library of Congress Control Number 2002112866  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To My Parents
  
  
  who first taught me what Chesterton  
  only confirmed,  
  that  
  “Thanks are the highest form of thought.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  
  [Preface](index_split_005.html#filepos3703)
  
  
  [1 An Introduction to the Apostle of Common
  Sense](index_split_006.html#filepos7377)
  
  
  [2 Orthodoxy](index_split_007.html#filepos27273)
  
  
  [3 Heretics](index_split_008.html#filepos46979)
  
  
  [4 What’s Wrong with the World](index_split_009.html#filepos66983)
  
  
  [5 The Catholic Church and Conversion](index_split_010.html#filepos86195)
  
  
  [6 The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic](index_split_011.html#f