# Christianity — Orthodoxy character guide

> Christianity in Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the Christian religion

**First appearance:** 0002-orthodoxy

## Snapshot

The faith the narrator keeps trying to dismiss and cannot, because its enemies attack it from every direction at once and never agree on the charge.

## Who they are

It is less a doctrine in the book than a puzzle: a thing accused of being too pessimistic and too optimistic, too austere and too indulgent, too Eastern and too Western, all in the same breath. The narrator's turning point is noticing that these contradictory attacks cancel each other out, leaving something strangely coherent standing. It matters because the book's whole movement is from seeing Christianity as an absurdity to seeing it as a shape that fits the world better than the alternatives.

## In the story

### [Orthodoxy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/orthodoxy)

Personified as a character; the subject of the book's defense and the embodiment of orthodox doctrine.

### [Introduction in Defence of Everything Else](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/i-introduction-in-defence-of-everything-else)

The central subject of the book, presented as the creed Chesterton ultimately embraced.

### [The Flag of the World](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/v-the-flag-of-the-world)

Presented as the answer to the riddle of combining primal loyalty with radical reform; accused historically of being both too optimistic and too pessimistic.

### [The Paradoxes of Christianity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/vi-the-paradoxes-of-christianity)

Christianity is portrayed as a system of balanced paradoxes, such as combining humility with dignity, forgiveness with justice, and peace with righteous anger.

### [VII: The Eternal Revolution](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/vii-the-eternal-revolution)

Christianity is presented as the source of the fixed ideal, the composite picture, and the binding commitments that the narrator seeks for a true Utopia.

### [The Romance of Orthodoxy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/viii-the-romance-of-orthodoxy)

Presented as the only religion that adds courage to the virtues of the Creator and that has felt omnipotence made God incomplete.

### [Authority and the Adventurer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/chapters/ix-authority-and-the-adventurer)

Christianity is presented as the religion that makes joy fundamental and sadness special, satisfying man's ancestral instinct for being the right way up.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/characters/christianity
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/orthodoxy_se/characters