The wrong place

Intriguingly, Chesterton doesn't seek to defend Christianity by minimising the more offensive or difficult of its dogmas, like original sin and the fall. Instead, he emphasises these particular dogmas because of their unique explanatory power . . . The fall was the key that unlocked the reason for both present, residual beauties and present, unwanted evils . . . it was a huge relief to discover that he and the worldwere abnormal. "The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had learned that I was in the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring." That the world wasn't right, but wasn't wholly wrong either was the reality that had to be accounted for and only the oddness of the doctrine of the fall did justice to the oddness of the reality.

G Furnell, "What I'm Learning from G.K. Chesterton - Part I" in Studio: a journal of christians writing No 106, 2007, page 33.