Orthodoxy

Chesterton belongs to a widely known group of English Catholic writers and literary figures that came to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most significant movements of the time was known as the Oxford Movement, a loosely organized collection of high-ranking members of the Church of England who advocated for a return to more ancient practices of the Christian Church. Subscribers to this particular version of English Christianity are known as Anglo-Catholics. Some famous individuals associated with the movement include John Cardinal Henry Newman, Monsignor Ronald Knox, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Additionally, a majority of those associated with the Oxford Movement eventually left the Anglican Church and entered into communion with the Catholic Church (leading some critics of the movement to dub the intellectual and religious drift of those involved as mere “Romanism,” a derogatory term for Roman Catholicism).

While not a member of the Oxford Movement himself, Chesterton flourished in the wake of these English Catholic clergymen and authors. The early 20th century—the time of Chesterton’s vast majority of publications—was a time of prolific output by some of the most renowned Christian authors of the last few centuries. While there were many academics who published significant work at this time, it is the work of Chesterton and his Anglican peer C. S. Lewis that, to this day, remain widely read among readers. Many classic works of Christian apologetics were written in the decades surrounding the publication of Chesterton’s work. Ronald Knox’s The Belief of Catholics was published in 1927, and C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity was published in 1952, having been adapted from radio talks he delivered in the 1940s during the war.