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Orthodoxy

Gilbert Keith Chesterton is one of the most celebrated and reverently esteemed figures in modern literature. He was a phenomenally prolific writer. After achieving early success as an illustrator, he subsequently established his fame as a playwright, novelist, poet, literary commentator, pamphleteer, essayist, lecturer, apologist, and editor. The depth and range of his work are astounding.

A pagan at only 12 and totally agnostic by 16, Chesterton had the remarkable experience of developing a personal, positive philosophy that turned out to be orthodox Christianity. Orthodoxy, his account of it all, has not lost its force as a timeless argument for the simple plausibility of traditional Christianity. C.S. Lewis and many other emerging Christian thinkers have found this book a pivotal step in their adoption of a credible Christian faith. This intellectual and spiritual autobiography of the leading 20th century essayist combines simplicity with subtlety in a model apologetic that appeals to today's generations of readers who face the same materialism and antisupernaturalism as did the “man at war with his times.”

Of the numerous works that Chesterton wrote, the most scintillating synthesis of his philosophy and deeply religious faith was manifested in his masterpiece, Orthodoxy, written when he was only thirty-four and which tells, in his inimitable, soaring prose, of his earth-shaking discovery that orthodoxy is the only satisfactory answer to the perplexing riddle of the universe. Orthodoxy is perhaps the most outstanding example of the originality of his style and the brilliance of his thought.

The Wedding of Magdeburg: A Novel

The Wedding of Magdeburg is no ordinary wedding. Germany, 1631: a world turned upside down by the Reformation. In the Free Imperial City of Magdeburg, one young bride is jilted on the eve of her nuptials, but as she waits for her groom to return, an even darker cloud looms: the Holy Roman Empire stands at the gates, ready to take the Protestant city as its own political “bride”. Will Magdeburg accept the proposal for the sake of peace, or will she rebel—and risk losing the battle altogether?

This masterpiece by Nobel Prize nominee Gertrud von le Fort, elegantly translated by Chase Faucheux, has never before appeared in English. A once love story, political thriller, and historical study of war in the seventeenth century, it follows the Sack of Magdeburg, the tragic battle now considered one of the greatest massacres of the Thirty Years’ War.

Le Fort, the acclaimed author of The Song at the Scaffold, takes a magnifying glass to the line that runs through every human heart—whether Protestant or Catholic, winning or losing, conquered or conquering. How do we find hope in the midst of destruction? How do we find freedom in total surrender?

With wisdom, riveting storytelling, and incredible psychological subtlety, The Wedding of Magdeburg tabulates the spiritual cost of war and shows how grace can dramatically imbue even the darkest moments of history.