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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What definition does Chesterton find BEST for optimist and pessimist?
(a) An optimist looks after your eyes, while a pessimist looks after your feet.
(b) An optimist has nothing but hope, while the pessimist has everything but hope.
(c) An optimist sees the world as the best it can be, while the pessimist sees the world as the worst it can be.
(d) An optimist thinks everything right but the pessimist, while the pessimist thinks everything wrong but himself.

2. What is the single true charge that Chesterton found against Christianity?
(a) Christianity is one religion.
(b) Christianity cannot be compatible with science.
(c) Christianity's claim to the Trinity is false.
(d) Christianity's view of salvation is unnecessarily complex.

3. What does Chesterton see as the purpose of the boundaries established by Christianity?
(a) To establish the power of the church.
(b) To expel unhappy and fierce things.
(c) To let good things run wild.
(d) To deny earthly happiness to believers.

4. What oddity does Chesterton find in the modern world?
(a) Men have physical luxury but artistic poorness.
(b) Men ignore the physical life in pursuit of the spiritual.
(c) Men ignore the spiritual life in pursuit of the physical.
(d) Men have artistic luxury but physical poorness.

5. What two extremes does Chesterton foresee in man's future?
(a) Overpopulation or extermination of humanity.
(b) Christianity or atheism.
(c) Sitting absolutely still or smashing the world for fun.
(d) Living a fairytale or living in hell.

6. What does Chesterton call the worst religion of all?
(a) The religion that worships multiple gods.
(b) The religion that worships the god inside.
(c) The religion of the Christian God.
(d) The religion that debases a man.

7. In Chesterton's image, how did he feel once his religious opinion changed? (Chesterton 2000, pg. 235)
(a) Fairyland was no longer important to his thinking.
(b) The dragon had been conquered.
(c) The army had fled before the light of his revelation.
(d) The land was lit up even back to his childhood.

8. Why, in the abstract, does Chesterton disapprove of long, complicated words?
(a) They are difficult to read and pronounce.
(b) They do not require thinking.
(c) Few people know what they mean.
(d) They hinder understanding.

9. In looking at Christianity and materialism, what coincidence stopped Chesterton in his tracks?
(a) That Christianity was accused of being both too optimistic and too pessimistic.
(b) That the materialists could not agree on a definition of their worldview.
(c) That Christianity was accused of being both too holy and too inane.
(d) That the scientists directly contradicted their theories of evolution.

10. Why, according to Christianity, can passions be free?
(a) Because they are monitored by the church.
(b) Because they are kept in their proper places.
(c) Because their consequences will not come until the afterlife.
(d) Because a believer's conscience keeps him from extreme passions.

11. Chesterton names four standards by which people try to establish the ideals of equality and inequality. What is the first?
(a) God-given authority.
(b) The progression of creatures through evolution.
(c) Persuasive thinking, similar to Nietzsche's.
(d) The passage of time.

12. What taunt does Swinburne hurl about the Galilean, Christ?
(a) His gaze makes men's hearts quiver in fear.
(b) His breath turns the world gray.
(c) His heart cannot soften the world.
(d) His salvation is not sufficient for all of humanity.

13. What problem did Christianity solve which Paganism could not?
(a) Forgiveness.
(b) Balance.
(c) Salvation.
(d) A personal God.

14. Chesterton chooses miracles as his first example regarding liberal thinking. What does he call this example?
(a) The most obvious choice.
(b) The easiest place to start.
(c) The worst problem facing liberals.
(d) The easiest point to prove.

15. In Chesterton's argument, why can the orthodox man believe in revolution?
(a) Orthodoxy manifests itself as revolution.
(b) Revolution coincides with orthodoxy.
(c) It's a trick question - he cannot.
(d) Revolution means restoration.

Short Answer Questions

1. Chesterton notes a startling difference between Christian and Buddhist art. What is this difference?

2. What is the enormous mistake of the modern age, according to Chesterton?

3. What is the evil of the pessimist? (Chesterton 2000, pg. 226)

4. Who does Chesterton name as believers in the Inner Light?

5. According to Chesterton, most things are allied with oppression. What is the one area where he sees a line past which oppression has no effect?

(see the answer keys)

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