Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Week 1: Chapter I — Introduction in Defence of Everything Else
Read Chapter I of Orthodoxy: "Introduction in Defence of Everything Else"
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Chesterton opens by confessing that his grand philosophical discovery was the embarrassing discovery that it had already been discovered — inviting us to consider what it might mean to arrive, with great effort and originality, at something old and true.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Chesterton frames the whole book with the image of an English yachtsman who accidentally discovers England while thinking he is finding a new island in the South Seas. What is the point of this parable?
a.Why does Chesterton insist the yachtsman's mistake was "a most enviable mistake" rather than an embarrassing one?
b.What does this image tell us about how Chesterton understands his own intellectual journey?
2.Chesterton says he is not writing a philosophy of his own because "I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me." What does it mean for a philosophy to make a person rather than the other way around? Have you ever been "made" by an idea you did not choose?
3.The central human need Chesterton identifies in this chapter is for a life that is both strange and secure — "to be at once astonished at the world and yet at home in it." Do you feel that tension in your own life? Which side do you tend to neglect — wonder or belonging?
4.Chesterton is careful to say this book is "a sort of slovenly autobiography" rather than a systematic theological treatise. Why might this approach be more persuasive for some readers than a formal argument? What are its limitations?
5.He notes that the word "romance" carries within it the mystery and ancient meaning of Rome — suggesting that the Christian faith is, at its core, a romance. What do you think he means by calling Christianity romantic? Does that word resonate with you?
6.Chesterton says he tried for a time to be "some ten minutes in advance of the truth" but found he was eighteen hundred years behind it. What is the spiritual danger of always trying to be ahead of received wisdom? Where do you see this impulse in yourself or in contemporary culture?
7.How does this opening chapter set up the book's thesis? In one or two sentences, state what you expect Chesterton to argue, and what you most hope or fear to find as you read on.
Closing Prayer
Lord, we confess that we, like Chesterton, have often tried to be ahead of the truth rather than humbly receiving it. We have sometimes been ashamed of what is old, and have mistaken novelty for wisdom. Give us the grace of the yachtsman — the joy of discovering, with astonishment and happy tears, that what we were seeking has been here all along. Make us at once strangers who wonder and children who are at home. Amen.
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