Heretics

By: G. K. Chesterton

Narrated by: Ulf Bjorklund

"Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word orthodox. In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous processes of State, the reasonable processes of law - all these like sheep had gone astray. The man was proud of being orthodox, was proud of being right. If he stood alone in a howling wilderness he was more than a man; he was a church. He was the centre of the universe; it was round him that the stars swung. All the tortures torn out of forgotten hells could not make him admit that he was heretical. But a few modern phrases have made him boast of it. He says, with a conscious laugh, "I suppose I am very heretical," and looks round for applause. The word heresy not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word orthodoxy not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. All this can mean one thing, and one thing only. It means that people care less for whether they are philosophically right. For obviously a man ought to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical. The Bohemian, with a red tie, ought to pique himself on his orthodoxy. The dynamiter, laying a bomb, ought to feel that, whatever else he is, at least he is orthodox." - Gilbert K. Chesterson

Public Domain (P)2011 eChristian, Inc.

Constructive and productive personally

The reading in particular was well done, which made the way of Chesterton’s thinking and writing much more easy to track with and follow

interesting how history repeats

interesting thoughts in sonewhat arcaic language. i found the accent of the reader distracting. However it is amazing how there is nothing new under the sun.

Presenter is peculiar for this author.

Presenter is not a great voice for a 300 lb cigar chomping Chesterton. Deeper British voice begged.

Like having Steven Hawking read poetry

Where does Heretics rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's an astute book of Catholic philosophy and apologetics, on par with his better known works, "Orthodoxy" and "The Everlasting Man", but shorter.

What did you like best about this story?

Not a story, but his metaphors and thought experiments are interesting and engaging.

How could the performance have been better?

The performance is where this recording really suffers. Ulf Bjorklund speaks in a clipped Scandinavian accent with some confusing pauses and mis-chosen points of emphasis. The words themselves are very clearly spoken and there is no mispronunciation, but often the reading is very flat, as if he spent all his prep time for the recording making sure the words were spoken clearly, but without knowing what they were trying to convey. Imagine if Christopher Walken were reading a book on quantum physics.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

n/a

Any additional comments?

worth listening to for the content, but the narrator is going to make you work that much harder for your understanding.

Poor reading of a great book!

Wooden reading and weird mispronunciations. Luckily, G.K. Chesterton is amazing. Interesting character sketches of the early 20th c, still applicable!

An amazing work by GKC

GKC is amazing as he goes through various unhealthy and inhumane ways of thinking. He is the master of sanity. There is a Word document I filled with my favorite quotes from this book and his Orthodoxy. Now that I've finished both, I will definitely listen to Everlasting Man.

The narrator is pretty good too. It's a very enjoyable listen.

Unusual pronunciations distracting

The narrator’s accent and unusual pronunciation of English words was distracting because I could not envision G K Chesterton pronouncing the words that way.

Qualitatively Quaint

Interesting how one can obtain a breath of fresh air from an archaic age.
This is vintage heady and joyful thinking, with tangential twists and turns that puzzlingly stays on point.
Chesterton is the Bach of prose.

Horrible reading

What didn’t you like about Ulf Bjorklund’s performance?

The reader has little inflection and repeatedly mispronounces words throughout the recording. If this is the best the publisher can offer, they should close up shop.

Mein Kampf

I’m slowly coming to formulate what is so disconcerting to me about Chesterton. He divides people. James Madison called it our tendency toward factions. Some call it tribalism or clan. I for one find his message now dangerous and divisive. He disparages the pacifism of Tolstoy. I see both what Czarist Russia and the Russian orthodox church did to Tolstoy. Chesterton is no different. If it were up to Chesterton, he would support a religious war pitting Bill , my Catholic friend, and Phil , my Lutheran priest friend, against one another. Bill would be on the side of justice.
To Chesterton, Phil is an apostate and will be damned. I was explaining to Lincoln the Catholicism of JRR Tolkien and Protestant denominations… I said Christianity is like a big freezer with ice cream. each denomination is just a different flavor. But to Chesterton, flavors be damned.
His smug confidence is couched in erudition , but I have come to find it prattle. Blessed be the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Give to Caesar what is owed to Caesar. Don’t take 500 years to apologize for persecuting Galileo .
I think Chesterton should just let people eat their ice cream if they want to and pick a flavor if they want to, and if they don’t wanna eat ice cream, they don’t have to.
I really can’t take such a charitable view nor excuse his line of thought as merely “a product of his times and persecution”

This line of reasoning, if extended to its natural conclusion, suggest that if you are not on the right path, you are on the wrong path. If you are not with us, you are against us. This line of reasoning is not very far removed from Nietzche and the Superman ; the Spanish inquisition; communism, Nazism, fascism; the French wars of religion and the Huguenots; as well as the Irish Republican Army.

Not less we forget America stood a gast at the concern of John F. Kennedy, becoming president only to be a secret puppet of the papacy… Anton Scalia was scorned from WASP higher institutions of learning and law school because of Catholic prejudice and had to matriculate at Georgetown for law school.

Chesterton does not follow the life of Christ. If Phil and Gandhi are going to hell, I’d rather join them there than be with Chesterton.