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No review by me could even remotely begin to do justice to the wit and wisdom in GK Chesterton's book Heretics.

I read this book at the recommendation of my son, Alan. I'm glad he encouraged me � strongly, I might add � to read Heretics. Next, I will read Orthodoxy.

Although Chesterton wrote in a different time and on a different continent, his words have strong application for what we are facing today with postmodernism, pluralism, and a new kind of religion called tolerance, which is really intolerant of any other view.

Chesterton shows a breadth of understanding and appreciation of the art, literature, and philosophy of his day. He was a good-natured man who was friends with people with whom he disagreed. In Heretics, he discusses the worldviews and works of people like Richard Kipling, Bernard Shaw, HG Wells, George Moore, Lowes Dickinson, and many others.

I was truly amazed at the breath of understanding that Chesterton has with his culture along with his ability to disagree in an agreeable, friendly, and joyous way.

I'm sure that if I was more conversant with the literature, philosophy, and politics of his day then I would have an even greater appreciation for Chesterton's repartee.

Trying to keep up with him in conversation would, no doubt, expose most of us as intellectual lightweights.

Chesterton believes that the most practical and important thing about a man is his view of the universe. Therefore, Chesterton begins with the first things � one's worldview. Ideas matter to Chesterton. He believes that one should search out the truth and then hold to one's position vigorously and with good will and humor.

Chesterton isn't fooling around. He says about Bernard Shaw, "I am concerned with him as a heretic � that is to say, a man whose philosophy is quite solid, quite coherent, and quite wrong." Chesterton feels his philosophy is quite right. And he is unapologetic about it. But he holds to his view in a friendly, joyous way.

For Chesterton if there is to be mental advance, it must be mental advance in the construction of a definite philosophy of life. He would have little patience for postmodern, pluralistic, tolerant views that are commonly held in the 21st century. He writes, "No man ought to write at all, or even to speak at all, unless he thinks that he is right and the other man in error... If we talk of a certain thing being an aspect of truth, it is evident that we claim to know what is truth; just as, if we talk of the hind leg of a dog, we claim to know what is a dog." He decries the philosopher who talks about aspects of the truth and then goes on to ask, "What is truth?" If one denies the existence of truth how then can he recognize its aspects?

Chesterton makes the case for orthodoxy and religion. He himself was an unapologetic Christian. He says that religion is the thing which cannot be left out � because it includes everything. He writes, "We have a general view of existence, whether we like it or not; it alters or, to speak more accurately, it creates and involves everything we say or do, whether we like it or not." In this way, Chesterton is saying that our worldview affects everything.

Of special note to us in the United States, Chesterton shares a few concerns about America. "But at the present moment the matter which America has very seriously to consider is not how near it is to its birth and beginning, but how near it may be to its end."

Chesterton is a man who very much appreciates the basic fundamental behaviors of life and encourages us to enjoy. "I should regard any civilization which was without a universal habit of uproarious dancing as being, from the full human point of view, a defective civilization. And I should regard any mind which had not got the habit in one form or another of uproarious thinking as being, from the full human point of view, a defective mind... Unless a man is in part a humorist, he is only in part a man. I import frivolity into a discussion of the nature of man because frivolity is part of the nature of man... If one objects to my treating of life riotously, I reply that life is a riot... I never look up at the stars without feeling that they are the fires of the schoolboy's rocket fixed in their everlasting fall."

Chesterton has a way of looking at life and literature in an upside down or inside out way. He's prompted me to want to think more carefully and ask more questions. We should ask, "Is this true? Is this right? How could this idea be flipped or tweaked or turned upside down or inside out to make it better or truer?" Chesterton loves to look at things a third way. He's a conservative who sees the fallacies of both the snobbish secularists and the rigid religionists.

Chesterton encourages us to drink because we are happy but never to drink because we are miserable. He says that we need to use wine not to shut out the universe but to reveal it. He says if we are to be truly happy and joyous we must believe that there is some eternal happiness and joy in the very nature of things. That's why he says, "Ultimately a man can enjoy nothing except religion."

I guess my hearty recommendation can be no more heightened other than by my saying that I can't wait to read the next book on my list by GK Chesterton, that is, Orthodoxy.