The Essential Chesterton Collection: Heretics • Orthodoxy • The Everlasting Man by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton was one of the 20th century’s most prolific Catholic writers with Heretics, Orthodoxy, and The Everlasting Man comprising his most well-known works. Heretics and Orthodoxy are complimentary works: Heretics attacks the current philosophies while Orthodoxy builds-up an affirmative answer. The Everlasting Man argues that both humanity itself and the figure of Jesus Christ represent radical, supernatural exceptions that cannot be explained by gradual evolution or comparative mythology. From Heretics: “I wish to deal with my most distinguished contemporaries, not personally or in a merely literary manner, but in relation to the real body of doctrine which they teach... I revert to the doctrinal methods of the thirteenth century, inspired by the general hope of getting something done.” From Orthodoxy: “It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer.” From The Everlasting Man: “Much of [this book] is devoted to many sorts of Pagans rather than any sort of Christians; and its thesis is that those who say that Christ stands side by side with similar myths, and his religion side by side with similar religions, are only repeating a very stale formula contradicted by a very striking fact.” Read more