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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Chesterton see as the purpose of the boundaries established by Christianity?
2. What definition does Chesterton find BEST for optimist and pessimist?
3. What does Chesterton define as the problem with pessimists?
4. Why did a typical nineteenth-century man not believe in Christ's resurrection, according to Chesterton?
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?
Short Essay Questions
1. Chesterton says that the primary evil with the pessimist is that he does not love what he chastises. How is this true?
2. How does Chesterton explain pantheism's relation to wonder? What is the primary difference between pantheism and action?
3. What nearly persuaded Chesterton to become a Christian? Why was this thought frightening?
4. What does Chesterton say is the most sensible ideal for nature? Is this a valid ideal? Why or why not?
5. Near the beginning of Chapter VII, The Eternal Revolution, Chesterton makes an argument concerning superiority. What is this argument? Does he satisfy the question fully?
6. 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?
7. 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?
8. Why, according to Chesterton, do modern thinkers find it advantageous to modernity to change the vision of heaven constantly? What effect does this have on man's mind?
9. 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?
10. Chapter V, The Flag of the World, begins with a young girl's idea that "An optimist is a man who looks after your eyes, and a pessimist is a man who looks after your feet" (Chesterton 2000, pg 223). How does Chesterton explain this?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What reasons does Chesterton give for saying that fairy land is the land of common sense? What are his comparisons to rationalism and religion? How far can this argument go? In other words, do common sense and fairy land do have a meaningful interaction?
Essay Topic 2
What comfort does Chesterton find in the thought that God hides his mirth from man? How does that picture speak to God's greatness? How does it reinforce the idea that man is full of joy? Draw your arguments from Chesterton's statements about God's character which are given throughout Orthodoxy.
Essay Topic 3
Why does God exult in what appears to humans as monotony? Does this lead to a sense of infancy or dullness misunderstood? What is Chesterton's reaction to this perception of God?
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This section contains 1,686 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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