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. In the Christian's view, why does a man's soul provide enough outlet for both the optimist and the pessimist?
(a) He now has reason to claim brotherhood with Christ.
(b) He has hope for a heavenly future but fear for an earthly one.
(c) Both passions are allowed free reign.
(d) He is exalted as God's creation and humbled as a sinner.

2. At the end of Chapter VI, The Paradoxes of Christianity, what conclusion does Chesterton reach about orthodoxy?
(a) It is a tool for understanding Christianity.
(b) It is man's only hope for understanding Christianity.
(c) It is inflexible.
(d) It is thrilling and perilous.

3. What does Chesterton call "the most difficult and interesting part of the mental process" that he reached? (Chesterton 2000, pg. 247)
(a) The fact that love and hate must burn equally strong.
(b) The problem of dealing with human passions.
(c) The fact that love and hate must soften each other.
(d) The problem of balance which is presented in the world.

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

5. Why does Chesterton call suicide the greatest sin?
(a) Because it takes a life God had given.
(b) Because it cuts off the future.
(c) Because man is acting like God.
(d) Because, in the eyes of one man, it kills the whole world.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why are people who admire Christianity, but do not believe it, uncomfortable?

2. What is Chesterton's second criterion for progress?

3. What is Pimlico?

4. Why did the serious changes in our political outlook occur at the beginning of the nineteenth century rather than at the end?

5. According to Chesterton, what is the problem with moving slowly toward justice?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter VI, The Paradoxes of Christianity, what does Chesterton name the most common type of trouble in the world? How does Christianity answer this trouble?

2. What nearly persuaded Chesterton to become a Christian? Why was this thought frightening?

3. What argument does Chesterton make for keeping joy and anger separate? What is the danger in letting them meld together to produce some form of contentment?

4. How does Chesterton explain the modern view of miracles? Is this view contradictory?

5. If Nature does improve man through impersonal means, as Chesterton claims, what must happen? What is happening in reality?

6. As Chesterton shows in Chapter VI, The Paradoxes of Christianity, what is Christianity's view of man? How can it hold to this argument?

7. What is the first time that Chesterton felt he had stumbled onto a path that was familiar to some? How did Christianity mirror his own thoughts?

8. What are the pagan and Christian view of virtue? What is Chesterton's view of them?

9. Christianity holds that any man who depends on a luxurious life is fallen and corrupt. What effect does this belief have on the believer, according to Chesterton?

10. Chesterton says that the primary evil with the pessimist is that he does not love what he chastises. How is this true?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,742 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample