From Nate's Bookshelf July 2005

So since I seem to be in one of those phases where I'm updating my blog again (they come every six months or so), I figure that now's as good a time as any to put in another bookshelf column. I just have one offering for now:

Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton - Mr. Chesterton was a prolific writer/speaker at the turn of the 20th Century (Note that we need to actually indicate what century is turning now...) who argued in a genial and provokative way for the Christian faith as not only truth but as the sole hope for the reform of mankind. He regularly debated such men as George Bernard Shaw who were noted atheists, and yet considered such men his dear friends. I think he provides a good model sharing the Christian faith in the public arena - respect for people with opposing viewpoints balanced with a determination to battle the viewpoints that he felt (and rightly so, considering the 20th Century that followed) would lead to oppression and all manners of evil.

In Orthodoxy, Chesterton loosely recounts his own intellectual journey to the Christian faith in light of the many other philosophies that gained popularity during his time (Freud, Marx, and Darwin are all discussed). Along the way, he employs fairy tales, paradox, and his engaging and humorous writing style to make his case, and dispenses numerous nuggets of tangental wisdom (One of my favorites: "...We can thank the Lord for beer and Burgundy by not drinking them too much."). He makes an argument for tradition (calling it "the democracy of the dead"), gives a great definition of what it means to love something or someone (you must be at once a perfect optimist and pessimist), and states that for a revolution to be successful, the Utopia it envisions must be a fixed point instead of a moving target. Written almost a century ago, I found it to be as relevant to our times as anything I've read.

Chesterton was a spiritual mentor to C. S. Lewis, and any fan of Lewis's writings would embrace Chesterton as well. This is a challenging book to read, and requires some level of discipline to get through, but I couldn't recommend it more highly. Easily the best book I've read this year, and maybe my favorite Christian book.

That's all for now...