Orthodoxy

By: G. K. Chesterton

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

G.K. Chesterton was a journalist, playwright, poet, biographer, novelist, essayist, literary commentator, editor, orator, artist, and theologian. Orthodoxy is his great theological work, which amounts to an apology for the Christian faith heretofore unequalled, excepting perhaps by C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity

. A serious attack against Christianity by well-known newspaper editor Robert Blatchford in 1903 impelled Chesterton to seize the gauntlet of refutation. His reply was immensely successful and was the early formation of his convincing credo that is so brilliantly and cogently argued in Orthodoxy, a masterwork that was published just five years later.

©2007 G.K. Chesterton (P)2009 christianaudio.com

A Reasonable Reading

What did you love best about Orthodoxy?

Personally, my highest compliment given to a person is

Who was your favorite character and why?

This book is not a narrative with characters. Rather Mr. Chesterton is discussing his own experience of life, so he is the main character. I came to like him very much from what I heard.

Which character – as performed by Simon Vance – was your favorite?

Simon Vance is my favorite male reader. (Juliet Stevenson is my favorite female reader.) His voice and reading are wonderful, and especially impressive in C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce. Orthodoxy does not have a variety of characters to portray, but Mr. Vance's reading of it was very satisfying indeed.

Greatest book of all time

As Peter Kreeft said, this is a book about everything. In addition to Chesterton’s account of his conversion, this book is also fascinating because it is a book that teaches us how to think. Like his example of the church being a living teacher, this book continues to apply to today’s issues and conflicts in ideology. It has held up to continue to show the fallacies in new modern ideas and how the truth of orthodoxy remains as the only antidote to the resulting confusion and apathy

Not what I thought

This is a book that has been recommended you me many times over the years. I finally broke down and listened to it expecting that I would fall in love with it quickly. Sadly I found I had to force myself to finish. Chesterton is first and foremost a journalist, very opinioned and clever but he is also a horrible philosopher. I am pretty sure he had never read most of the people he criticized as he misrepresents many of the things they said, and uses circular logic to defend his own position. He is great if you want to enjoy his clever wit, but don’t confuse this with real philosophy.

Best narrator I’ve ever heard

Nothing much new to say about this classic. Writing this review just to say the narrator is fantastic. I would forget while listening and feel as though Chesterton himself were speaking to me. The narrator gives the book real feeling and emotional gravity and it sounds like real belief behind the words.

Great books

A great book to be read with C.S.Lewis's books. Read by Simon Vance.. the best narrator alive

A timeless piece of theistic literature!

Fifth time reading this book. Every Christian should read this book. it's a wonder, entertaining, witty, winsome, polemical book that'll make you laugh while building your argument. YOU WON'T REGRET THIS BOOK!

Trpping the light fantastical!

Absolutely amazing, profound, and hysterical. Thank you, G. K. Chesterton, for revealing modern life's absurdity and eternal life's joy.

GK & Simon Vance. great combo BUT...

BUT the chapters aren't accurate! each chapter is an hour long and that's it.5 star regardless. publisher, fix this

The pleasure of a first-rate, creative mind!

How did I make it this far in life without reading any of the serious works of Chesterton?!

I thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual exercise required to follow his arguments, and his brilliant wit and humor added spice to the dish!

Great delivery of a great book.

Chesterton is a genius. Wondered whether audio book would work for this book as it is so packed with lines you want to re-read ( not hard to follow, just witty or beautiful or profound or all three) , but Simon Vance delivers them better than I could in my head.
Servant of God GKC, ora pro nobis.