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Abstract
We would first like to state the reason for this study. An eminent
Thomistic philosopher, Etienne Gilson, thought Chesterton's
Orthodoxy «the best piece of apologetic the century had produced
» '. If someone had said the same of an eighthcentury apologist
eleven hundred years ago, it would not have been the same; Gilson's
judgement becomes all the more interesting when we remember
that Chesterton's century has been the century of the great
apologetic studies, second in importance only to the epoch of the
Fathers of the Church and their apologetic endeavours. Moreover,
it is not just Orthodoxy that has captured our attention. Rev.
Ronald Knox —himself a renowned Catholic apologist— said of
Chesterton «that, if every other line he wrote should disappear
from circulation, Catholic posterity would still owe him an imperishable
debt of gratitude, so long as a copy of The Everlasting
Man enriched its libraries» 2 . And although the honor constitutes
no guarantee by the Magisterium of the Chruch on the doctrinal
content of Chesterton's works in general, Pope Pius XI confered
the title «Defender of the Catholic Faith» on the British apologist
shortly after his death in June of 1936