In response to G. K. Chesterton’s book Heretics, H. G. Wells said, “I will begin to worry about my philosophy…when Mr. Chesterton has given us his.” And that is what Chesterton set out to do in Orthodoxy. But like any good theorist, he truly believed he could not undertake this task without first articulating what he did not agree with. After he had completed this with Heretics, he set out to articulate the philosophy that he had come to believe.
In a personal way, Chesterton uses “a set of mental pictures” to describe his journey in discovering the truth. Among his key points is the role of reason and fantasy in helping him to discover true orthodoxy. They led him to see that this was not a product of chance, but was fashioned by a divine Creator. His timeless wisdom is relevant to the struggles of many Christians today.
Chesterton was surprised to find that what he discovered about orthodoxy was not unique to him at all; rather, it had been passed down through many generations. And he admitted, after much struggle and in much humility, “I will not call it my philosophy, for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me.”