Ebook Heretics

Heretics is a collection of 20 essays originally published by G.K. Chesterton in 1905.

Chapters

• Introductory Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy
• On the Negative Spirit
• On Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Making the World Small
• Mr. Bernard Shaw
• Mr. H. G. Wells and the Giants
• Christmas and the Esthetes
• Omar and the Sacred Vine
• The Mildness of the Yellow Press
• The Moods of Mr. George Moore
• On Sandals and Simplicity
• Science and the Savages
• Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson
• Celts and Celtophiles
• On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family
• On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set
• On Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity
• On the Wit of Whistler
• The Fallacy of the Young Nation
• Slum Novelists and the Slums
• Concluding Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy

In his first essay, Chesterton describes his understanding of the words Orthodox and Heretic as they apply to, and have changed in, the modern period. Chesterton argues that in modernity, "The word 'orthodoxy' not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong". He continues to write that society no longer tolerates a man’s life philosophy or religion, yet is increasingly absorbed in "art for art’s sake". Chesterton identifies this trend to replace ideological substance with vagueness and criticizes popular writers, public figures, politicians, and the like for proclaiming a gospel of silence when moral and philosophical direction is needed.