Chesterton's Orthodoxy--Introduction

Introduction

Chesterton begins by stating that this is a follow-up to his papers "Heretics" and an answer to several critics who suggested he needed to state his philosophy with examples.  He will set forth his philosophy in "a set of mental pictures rather than in a series of deductions.

His first mental picture is of man who thought he had found an exotic new island in the South Seas, only to realize it was his familiar homeland, England.

"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."

"...Nearly all people I have ever met in this western society in which I live would agree to the general proposition that we need this life of practical romance; the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure."

"No one can think my case more ludicrous than I think it myself; no reader can accuse me here of trying to make a fool of him:  I am the happy fool of this story, and no rebel shall hurl me from my throne."

"I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy."