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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. 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?

2. In Chesterton's thoughts, Christianity came to assert passionately what idea?

3. What is Chesterton's first criterion for progress?

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

5. Why did the writings of skeptics and evolutionists push Chesterton toward Christianity?

Short Essay Questions

1. As Chesterton argues, why does love seek individuality and personality? Is this true only in relation to man or also in relation to God?

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

3. What does Chesterton say is the most sensible ideal for nature? Is this a valid ideal? Why or why not?

4. 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?

5. 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?

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

9. How does Chesterton explain pantheism's relation to wonder? What is the primary difference between pantheism and action?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

According to Chesterton, what happens when men deny their inherent sinfulness? What are the philosophical and theological repercussions? How does this belief separate men from each other?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

What is the mindset of the madman? How does it differ from a sane man and how is it similar to a materialist? What is Chesterton's answer to this mindset? Does this answer take into account all aspects of the mindset?

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