Review: Orthodoxy - Chesterton

I decided to write my senior thesis on G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) during my last year of college. I quickly discovered that Chesterton was extremely prolific. In addition to being a full-time journalist, he wrote approximately 80 books, volumes of poetry, hundreds of essays, and several plays. It was overwhelming, but since I had received a copy of Orthodoxy for Christmas, I began my research there. It was the perfect place to begin, because, as I later learned, the book is critical for thoroughly understanding the rest of Chesterton’s work. All of the major themes in his fiction are explained in this short book.

I opened Orthodoxy for the first time and was soon confused. Knowing that Chesterton was Roman Catholic, I expected that a book titled "Orthodoxy" would be an overview of Roman Catholic theology. It isn't. Ironically enough, it is an unorthodox apologetic for Christianity as a whole. Orthodoxy is unorthodox in that, rather than giving arguments to defend Christianity, Chesterton defends common sense, and finds in the end that common sense itself defends Christianity.

I decided that I liked the book upon reading the first two sentences, and by the second chapter, I was chortling in my coffee. Orthodoxy begins with the words,

The only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel.

In addition to being witty, Chesterton is an exceptional writer. Every paragraph is full of personality. Even on the rare occasion when I disagree with him (he wasn't a fan of the Reformation, but I am) I can't help but like him. All he writes is so well put that to paraphrase Chesterton is to commit a crime against his talents. This makes Orthodoxy a difficult book to pull quotes from. It's nearly impossible to pull out a single sentence; whenever I try, I end up quoting an entire paragraph or two. His writing is also notable for the way he turns the world on its head. But through Chesterton one soon finds that the world makes sense only when it is upside down. Two examples will suffice:

The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid.

Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.

Everyone I know who has read Orthodoxy has remarked that they were overcome with an urge to underline every sentence. This is probably because besides being remarkably insightful, Orthodoxy, like every other non-fiction book Chesterton wrote, is really a book about everything. As he once wrote elsewhere,

If Christianity should happen to be true -- that is to say, if its God is the real God of the universe -- then defending it may mean talking about anything and everything. Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true.

Why Read?

Well, one reason to read books (or at least to buy them) is to impress people. In 2005, this headline appeared: One in three has bought a book just to look intelligent.

Of course, that's a bad reason to read books, so here are some good reasons. (FYI, reading to be smarter is a better reason to read than reading to look smarter.)

4) Reading makes you smarter. I don't mean that you just gain more facts. I mean that it changes how you think and interact with the world. Perhaps I should have said, "Reading makes you rational." We live in an image-saturated culture. We are so accustomed to reacting to visual media that rational thought has become a chore for us. When was the last time you noticed a logical fallacy? (Hint: they're everywhere, from political speeches to junk mail.) Reading increases your capacity to think critically.

3) Reading makes you a better learner. In order to read a book you have to sit still and remain focused for extended periods of time. You do the same when you watch TV, but television spoon-feeds your brain. When you read, however, your brain works harder because you process squiggles on a page and convert them into images and bits of information. This ability to focus makes studying and learning not just easier, but pleasurable.

2) Reading gives you the opportunity to join the Great Conversation. If you haven't noticed, folks have been writing books for a little while. Reading great books allows you to join the conversation and exchange of ideas that is 2500+ years old and running.

1) The Bible is full of books. God didn't give us the gospel in a DVD box set. It is significant that God chose the written word to reveal his mind to mankind. Most everyone agrees that the Bible is the most influential anthology ever written and compiled. If you don't read books, you won't ever read the Bible. Even if you don't believe it's the Word of God, it's the height of historical, cultural, and religious ignorance to not be familiar with it.

Reading in Decline (Statistics)

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half have never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." —Gore Vidal, author.

Here are a few staggering statistics on how much (or little, rather) Americans read. (Source)

• Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure the previous day.
• 65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.
• Only 56.6% of adult Americans said they read at least one book, fiction or non-fiction, between August 2001 and August 2002 compared to 60.9% ten years prior.
• Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
• 70% of Americans haven't visited a bookstore in five (5) years.
• Customers 55 and older account for more than one-third of all books bought.
• People reduced their time reading between 1996 and 2001 to 2.1 hours/month.
• Only 32% of the U.S. population has ever been in a bookstore.
  

The mean age of book buyers in 2001:

• Age 15-39: 20.8% of the books bought
• Age over 55: 44.1% of the books bought

In 2004, Americans spent

• 86 hours reading books, per person
  
• 1,673 hours watching TV, per person

I find this last figure horrifying. 1673 hours is a few hours shy of 70 days. This means that if you are average, every 5 years you will have spent 1 year with your brain glued to your television. Don't waste your life being spoon-fed on the couch. Feed yourself; read more. Think.

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