Chesterton has lately been enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
(24-25) In Heretics and After Strange Gods,
Chesterton and Eliot set out to "redress the balance" and "effect the compensation" for readers by setting the partial truths highlighted by these heretics against the full truth of orthodoxy, though in both works orthodoxy is defined primarily by its absence from the works of modernist writers.
The Bishop of Northampton, Peter Doyle, appointed Canon John Udris to look into
Chesterton's credentials in 2013.
Although some critics, such as Schwartz and William Oddie, have noted the connection between The Ball and the Cross and
Chesterton's own conversion, there have been no comprehensive studies of how conversion functions within the thematic and structural composition of the novel.
If one takes "serious" and "stern" to be synonyms in his criticism of Wilde, one is left with a conundrum as to the meanings of "florid," "funny," and "light sophistry." The possibility of stark inconsistency cannot be discounted altogether; however,
Chesterton is firm on the fact--and a broad reading of his work seems to corroborate--that he does not practice that of which he accuses Wilde; his florid is not Wilde's florid, as he sees it.
Though few would have known it at the time, for
Chesterton himself there was much at stake.
Chesterton, perhaps the 20th century's greatest writer and genius, wrote that there were two kinds of artists in the world.