View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Chesterton, what is too big an undertaking for a book even of a larger scope?
(a) Proving that materialism is an insufficient worldview.
(b) Explaining the intricacies of Christianity.
(c) Proving from every angle that any one faith is true.
(d) Proving the Christianity is true.

2. What is the title of the essay that H. G. Wells wrote on skepticism?
(a) Understanding the Skeptical Mind.
(b) The Creeds and Hierarchies.
(c) Doubts of the Instrument.
(d) Skepticism from a Philosophical Viewpoint.

3. In Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, what is the problem with modern philosophers?
(a) They cannot see the riddle.
(b) They are intellectually lazy.
(c) They have no hope of finding the answer.
(d) They cannot find the answer.

4. When materialism leads a man to fatalism, what does it also accomplish, according to Chesterton?
(a) It cripples his free will.
(b) It also destroys his humanity.
(c) It also destroys his sense of hope.
(d) It acts as a liberating force.

5. What does Chesterton say concerning the boundaries of the will?
(a) The will is limiting to the man.
(b) The will has boundaries only if it is not a free action.
(c) The will frees a man.
(d) The will defines a man's actions fully.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chesterton explain as his method for proving his argument?

2. What is Chesterton's amazement at scientific advancement?

3. Who does Chesterton name as the only great English poet to go mad?

4. What does Chesterton assert as a necessity for the human mind?

5. "[T]he happiness depended on not doing something which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why you should not do." (Chesterton 2000, pg 215) What is Chesterton's opinion of this condition for happiness?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Chesterton say is the spirit of the law in fairy land? Why is this not inconsistent?

2. In Chapter I, Introduction in Defense of Everything Else, Chesterton states that the book is written from his own experiences rather than as the result of research and labor. What expectations does this set up or destroy for the reader?

3. In Chapter IV, The Ethics of Elfland, what does Chesterton give as the first two principles of democracy? How does he convey a sense of wonder even in these principles?

4. The author says people can justly call him a fool because he is a fool. What does this reveal about the man himself? How does this set up expectations for the rest of the book?

5. What role does Mr. G. S. Street play in the book?

6. The only authority for Chesterton's argument is the Apostles' Creed. Is this more or less effective than appealing to the Bible as the sole authority?

7. In the example of the explorer who only discovers his own land, Chesterton says that his first emotion might be foolishness. This should not be the sole emotion, though. Why does Chesterton name foolishness as the first emotion and how might this fit the religious explorer?

8. Why does Chesterton say that the act of willing is a limiting act? Could it be freeing instead? What happens if you attempt to free something from the laws of its nature?

9. In Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, what is Chesterton's opinion of the skeptic? Why does the skeptic not have the right to speak out against anything? Why, contrarily, is he always speaking out against things?

10. Considering the fact that elf land is more rational than the scientific world is, why does Chesterton say that magic flourishes in elf land?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,626 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample