Orthodoxy

By: G. K. Chesterton

Narrated by: Simon Vance

"In these pages I have attempted in a vague and personal way, in a set of mental pictures rather than a series of deductions, to state the philosophy in which I have come to believe. I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me."

Chesterton's Orthodoxy makes Christian apologetics both compelling and delightful. Here is equilibrium of the mind's reason, the soul's imagination, and the belly's laughter!

©2007 G.K. Chesterton (P)2006 Christian Audio

Clearness’s

Loved the sense of humor and way it describes reality plus how it lines up with scripture

Not what I thought

This is a book that has been recommended you me many times over the years. I finally broke down and listened to it expecting that I would fall in love with it quickly. Sadly I found I had to force myself to finish. Chesterton is first and foremost a journalist, very opinioned and clever but he is also a horrible philosopher. I am pretty sure he had never read most of the people he criticized as he misrepresents many of the things they said, and uses circular logic to defend his own position. He is great if you want to enjoy his clever wit, but don’t confuse this with real philosophy.

Best narrator I’ve ever heard

Nothing much new to say about this classic. Writing this review just to say the narrator is fantastic. I would forget while listening and feel as though Chesterton himself were speaking to me. The narrator gives the book real feeling and emotional gravity and it sounds like real belief behind the words.

A Reasonable Reading

What did you love best about Orthodoxy?

Personally, my highest compliment given to a person is

Who was your favorite character and why?

This book is not a narrative with characters. Rather Mr. Chesterton is discussing his own experience of life, so he is the main character. I came to like him very much from what I heard.

Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?

Simon Vance is my favorite male reader. (Juliet Stevenson is my favorite female reader.) His voice and reading are wonderful, and especially impressive in C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. Orthodoxy does not have a variety of characters to portray, but Mr. Vance's reading of it was very satisfying indeed.

Greatest book of all time

As Peter Kreeft said, this is a book about everything. In addition to Chesterton’s account of his conversion, this book is also fascinating because it is a book that teaches us how to think. Like his example of the church being a living teacher, this book continues to apply to today’s issues and conflicts in ideology. It has held up to continue to show the fallacies in new modern ideas and how the truth of orthodoxy remains as the only antidote to the resulting confusion and apathy