Heretics

‘Heretics’ is a collection of 20 essays, originally published in 1905 by G.K. Chesterton—an English poet, writer, philosopher, journalist, and lay theologian. Chesterton has been called the ‘prince of paradox’ and is well-known for his ability to turn popular sayings and allegories inside out in order to make a point. In this book, he calls upon popular and public figures to stop being silent and to provide moral and philosophical direction that is so badly needed.
Though Chesterton was on the whole a fun loving and gregarious man, during adolescence he was troubled by thoughts of suicide. In Christianity he found answers to many of the dilemmas and paradoxes of life. He provides a very personal critique of contemporary religious notions in his work. His consistently engaging but often wayward humor is mixed liberally with daring flights of fancy and some startling turns of thought. A highly original collection of essays, providing an invaluable contribution to one of the major debates of the last century—one that continues to exercise leading thinkers in the present one.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.