Heretics

By: G. K. Chesterton, G. K. Chesterton

Narrated by: Ulf Bjorklund

Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word "orthodox". In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous processes of State, the reasonable processes of law--all these like sheep had gone astray. The man was proud of being orthodox, was proud of being right. If he stood alone in a howling wilderness he was more than a man; he was a church. He was the centre of the universe; it was round him that the stars swung. All the tortures torn out of forgotten hells could not make him admit that he was heretical. But a few modern phrases have made him boast of it. He says, with a conscious laugh, "I suppose I am very heretical," and looks round for applause. The word "heresy" not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word "orthodoxy" not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. 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. The Bohemian, with a red tie, ought to pique himself on his orthodoxy. The dynamiter, laying a bomb, ought to feel that, whatever else he is, at least he is orthodox. -- Gilbert K. ChestersonPublic Domain (P)2011 Christian Audio

Presenter is peculiar for this author.

Presenter is not a great voice for a 300 lb cigar chomping Chesterton. Deeper British voice begged.

Constructive and productive personally

The reading in particular was well done, which made the way of Chesterton’s thinking and writing much more easy to track with and follow

interesting how history repeats

interesting thoughts in sonewhat arcaic language. i found the accent of the reader distracting. However it is amazing how there is nothing new under the sun.

Like having Steven Hawking read poetry

Where does Heretics rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's an astute book of Catholic philosophy and apologetics, on par with his better known works, "Orthodoxy" and "The Everlasting Man", but shorter.

What did you like best about this story?

Not a story, but his metaphors and thought experiments are interesting and engaging.

How could the performance have been better?

The performance is where this recording really suffers. Ulf Bjorklund speaks in a clipped Scandinavian accent with some confusing pauses and mis-chosen points of emphasis. The words themselves are very clearly spoken and there is no mispronunciation, but often the reading is very flat, as if he spent all his prep time for the recording making sure the words were spoken clearly, but without knowing what they were trying to convey. Imagine if Christopher Walken were reading a book on quantum physics.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

n/a

Any additional comments?

worth listening to for the content, but the narrator is going to make you work that much harder for your understanding.

Poor reading of a great book!

Wooden reading and weird mispronunciations. Luckily, G.K. Chesterton is amazing. Interesting character sketches of the early 20th c, still applicable!