Monday, March 07, 2016

Books read in 2016: No. 5 -- Orthodoxy

by G.K. Chesterton

Started: March 1
Finished: March 7

Notes: This is an early-modern work of Christian apologetics, one which has influenced such writers ever since, most notably C.S. Lewis. Considering my interests in the topic, I thought it deserved a perusal.

Mini review: After all I had read and heard about this book, I was rather disappointed. The writing is obscure, full of witticisms that don't ring true to the modern reader, and frankly most of the arguments in favor of Christianity were rather weak, or at best based upon 19th-Century notions of theology and science which have proven outdated. And then there's the author's "Europe is better than everybody else" bias which borders on racism in a few instances. Well, at least I can say I've read it, though I'm puzzled as to how it has had such an influence upon later, far better writers.

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

well, even wrong statements can provide a starting spot for a debate.

Ty said...

True enough, though here it wasn't so much that his arguments were wrong as it was they no longer applied. But yeah, it's a starting spot and related to later works.