"Orthodoxy" Slow-Read Coming Soon

Starting in March at "The Chestertonian" Substack

“The first use of good literature is that it prevents a man from being merely modern. To be merely modern is to condemn oneself to an ultimate narrowness … The road of the ancient centuries is strewn with dead moderns. Literature, classic and enduring literature, does its best work in reminding us perpetually of the whole round of truth and balancing other and older ideas against the ideas to which we might for a moment be prone.” ~ G.K. Chesterton, “On Reading” from The Common Man

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Hello, Chestertonians!

I (Rebekah Valerius) am planning a slow-read through G.K. Chesterton’s 1908 classic, Orthodoxy, starting in March and ending in May. This series will be open to subscribers of both The Chestertonian and Shadowlands Dispatch.

If there ever was a book tailor-made for a slow read, it’s this one. It demands that we slow down to fully appreciate its genius, in fact. Plus, it is an absolute delight! There is nothing at all boring about this book, so reading slowly will be a joy rather than a drudgery.

More importantly, this book is perhaps the best, most poetic, and rational argument for the fact that there is nothing boring about Christianity. Chesterton once observed that the more familiar we are with something, the more we are in danger of losing sight of its value. Things can be too close to appreciate, or even to see (not unlike that stack of books on your bedside table that’s been there so long you’ve forgotten it’s there!). Chesterton called it the “fatigue of familiarity” and noted it as a consequence of our fallen nature. This can often be the case for our view of Christianity, too. “We have sinned and grown old,” he wrote, and therefore we struggle to exult in the things that feel overfamiliar to us.

That said, if you feel as if your love for our Lord has grown a little cold from this kind of overfamiliarity, let me assure you that Orthodoxy is the warming fire your heart needs.

The Details: I am hosting this three-month slow-read starting in March (our first meeting will be Saturday, March 21). We will read roughly 15 pages per week, depending on your edition. At the end of each month, we will meet via Zoom to discuss the reading. I will send the Zoom link on Chat as we get closer.

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Friends don’t let friends read Chesterton alone. Chesterton is best read with others!

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The Reading Plan:

Month 1: Chapters 1–3 - Meeting Saturday, March 21 @ 10 am CST

Month 2: Chapters 4–6 - Meeting Saturday, April 18 @ 10 am CST

Month 3: Chapters 7–9 - Final Meeting Saturday, May 23 @ 10 am CST

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Finally, here are a few resources that might help you as you read.

I cannot recommend the annotated version by Trevin Wax enough. It contains helpful footnotes and introductions/conclusions for each chapter that guide the reader through Chesterton’s complex prose and profound insights. Wax also took the liberty to insert a few more paragraph breaks and headings for us modern readers who tend to get lost when a single paragraph persists for more than a page, as it tends to do with G.K.

Also, I highly recommend listening to an audio as you read along. Here’s one of my favorites, narrated by Stephen Gammond. I would not recommend listening alone without reading, especially if this is your first time reading this book.