ORTHODOXY

G.K. Chesterton put his philosophy of Christianity to paper in 1908, responding to the popularity of humanism with "a set of mental pictures" that stated his argument. Read by Simon Vance, those mental pictures come alive in a way that echoes Chesterton's original intent: to be at times poetic while maintaining the rhetorical style of an expert debater. While listening, the thought of Chesterton reading his work on a podium is likely to come to mind. Chesterton devoted too much of "Orthodoxy" to specific answers to religion's critics from his era. While you might remember H.G. Wells or George Bernard Shaw, references to their views on faith make these passages sound dated and dilute their overall effectiveness. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]