I’m a sucker for complete editions of any author I enjoy. I found my treasured hardback copy of The Complete Father Brown Stories in a second hand bookstore in Stouffville, Ontario.

Chesterton‘s Father Brown stories are brilliant in many ways. Aside from the clever mysteries he invents, the perspective of the protagonist—a Catholic priest—gives Chesterton many opportunities to comment on theology.

Here Father Brown explains to Flambeau why Sir Arthur St. Clare’s habit of reading the Bible doesn’t mean he’s innocent:

Sir Arthur St. Clare, as I have already said, was a man who read his Bible. That was what was the matter with him. When will people understand that it is useless for a man to read his Bible unless he also reads everybody else’s Bible? A printer reads a Bible for misprints. A Mormon reads his Bible, and finds polygamy; a Christian Scientist reads his, and finds we have no arms and legs.

This started me thinking: what bible do I read?