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Written by G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy addresses foremost one main problem: How can we contrive to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it? Chesterton writes: He says, I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance. Chesterton is a thinker who hits the nail on the head and leaves you excited to say, that is what I've often thought! Concerning orthodox Christianity Chesterton likens it to a man who set out in a boat from England and was quite excited to land on an island only to soon discover he had in fact, landed on England. I am the man who with the utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before. I fancied that I stood alone I was really in the ridiculous position of being backed up by all Christendom. This is G K Chesterton's autobiography. It is his story of finding the familiar and unfamiliar in Christianity. It is his hunt for the gorgon or griffin and in the end discovers a rhinoceros and then takes pleasure in the fact that a rhinoceros exists but looks as if it oughtn't. Chesterton has the incredible ability to turn everything upside down and inside out and make you realize that is the everyday bizarre normal, the seemingly insane, sane. If G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith is, as he called it, a slovenly autobiography, then we need more slobs in the world. In Orthodoxy, Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome. Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. Orthodoxy is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best.

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Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century. His prolific and diverse output included journalism, philosophy, poetry, biography, Christian apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the prince of paradox. [1] Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories-first carefully turning them inside out. [For example, Chesterton wrote the following: Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it. Chesterton is well known for his reasoned apologetics and even those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.[Chesterton, as a political thinker, cast aspersions on both liberalism and conservatism, saying: The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an orthodox Christian, and came to identify such a position with Catholicism more and more, eventually converting to Roman Catholicism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton's friendly enemy according to Time, said of him, He was a man of colossal genius.

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