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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, how did men gain morality?

2. How does the Christian idea of a transcendent God manifest itself in a frightening way?

3. How does Chesterton want joy and anger to interact?

4. What does Chesterton see as the purpose of the boundaries established by Christianity?

5. At the beginning of Chapter VI, The Paradoxes of Christianity, what does Chesterton call the most common problem with the world?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Chesterton begin to question the attacks on Christianity? What did he find as he questioned?

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

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

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

5. 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?

6. 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?

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

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. 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

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?

Essay Topic 2

Chesterton contrasts pantheism and action - how do they differ? What is the ultimate result of pantheism? How is this distinction related to the differences between Buddhism and Christianity regarding God?

Essay Topic 3

Chesterton wants only a Utopia that allows him to restrict himself, to bind his own liberties. What does he mean by this? What are the advantages and disadvantages? What is your idea of Utopia, and does it coincide at any point with Chesterton's idea?

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