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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Bernard Shaw speak of miracles?
(a) With awe.
(b) With contempt.
(c) With disbelief.
(d) With admiration.

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

3. What does Chesterton say is the result of believing that progress is a natural, predictable happening?
(a) A person works harder to achieve this.
(b) A person becomes lazy.
(c) A person ceases to believe in progress.
(d) A person looks for ethical support.

4. What definition does Chesterton find BEST for optimist and pessimist?
(a) An optimist thinks everything right but the pessimist, while the pessimist thinks everything wrong but himself.
(b) An optimist looks after your eyes, while a pessimist looks after your feet.
(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 has nothing but hope, while the pessimist has everything but hope.

5. Chesterton names four standards by which people try to establish the ideals of equality and inequality. What is his opinion of the fourth standard?
(a) It is ridiculous.
(b) It is the only sensible one.
(c) Its roots are in paganism.
(d) It is the only one fitting to Christianity.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Chesterton call suicide the greatest sin?

2. What two extremes does Chesterton foresee in man's future?

3. According to Chesterton, how did men gain morality?

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

5. Why does Chesterton say that any discussion about the creation/sustaining principle in the world must be metaphorical?

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

3. Why is it better to be a progressive, according to Chesterton's understanding of the term? Why should man rebel against the new rather than against the old?

4. Why are liberals not free thinkers? What argument is made in Chapter VIII, The Romance of Orthodoxy, about confusion within language?

5. What is the common view of Christianity and Buddhism, according to Chesterton? How are they similar and dissimilar? What is Chesterton's opinion of their differences?

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

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 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?

9. How do Eastern and Western religions differ in their understanding of seclusion in worship, according to Chesterton? How does this affect their sense of community?

10. At the end of Chapter V, The Flag of the World, what transformation does Chesterton describe? How did the transformation address his question of optimism and pessimism?

(see the answer keys)

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