A devout Catholic, Chesterton was, by his own admission, irritated by critics who objected to his Christian apologetics writings. Chesterton wrote a great deal in defense of Christianity, the most well-known of these writings being Heretics. When the critic G.S. Street wrote scathingly about the book, Chesterton wrote Orthodoxy in direct response to Street's criticism. Orthodoxy was in many ways a journal, as it detailed Chesterton's own route to the Christian faith. He believes it is the answer to the eternal human questions, and not something that exists in a vacuum as a book of teachings and "words'; it is a pivotal part of the human experience.
Chesterton wrote the book whilst he was still an Anglican, although he was becoming frustrated and disillusioned with the church, because he saw what he believed to be a loosening of the orthodoxy of the church and a slow descent into a more relaxed approach to Christianity. He did not like this and realized that his more orthodox views were best represented by Catholicism. He converted fourteen years after the publication of the book.
Orthodoxy was not only a personal essay by Chesterton, but an influential work when it came to church politics. It was pivotal in influencing the choice of Bernard Iddings Bell, for example, It also gave Chesterton a more important role within the church than he had enjoyed previously.
Surprisingly, despite Chesterton's hefty theological and philosophical output, he had started his literary career as a poet, and shortly afterwards as an art critic, having studied art at the prestigious Slade School of Art and Design in London. He is best known for penning the Father Brown Mysteries which introduced his work to a new generation of readers when the adventures of the crime-solving priest were adapted for television by the BBC. It was his theological writing, though, of which Chesterton was most proud; after his death, the Chesterton Society campaigned heavily for his beatification.
