Heretics

For Chesterton, Truth matters. In this, he is well aware of the use of the Greek term behind the English “heretic” to describe one who makes a choice or takes a position; and he joins the ranks of heretics who embrace their heresies as orthodoxies, as positions that are true. He contends, “we dismiss the two opposite dangers of bigotry and fanaticism, bigotry which is a too great vagueness and fanaticism which is a too great concentration.” It would be difficult to imagine two more relevant dangers at the beginning of the twenty-first century than bigotry and fanaticism. That makes the time right for another look at Chesterton’s third way.