released 4/19/2024
Biographer Alzina Stone Dale observes that in his 1925 masterpiece The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton “cheerily explains the world to the world, talking about myth, religion, rite, story, and salvation.” A new edition of this powerful and fearless defense of the uniqueness and truth of the Christian faith has just been published by Word on Fire, with an introduction, notes, and commentary by Dale Ahlquist, president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and the editor and publisher of Gilbert magazine. In this Feature, Ken Myers talks with him about Chesterton’s great achievement in this 99-year-old book.
34 minutes
PREVIEW
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In this archive interview from Volume 99 of the Journal, theologian Alison Milbank talks about her book Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians: The Fantasy of the Real. Milbank discusses the influence that G. K. Chesterton had upon J. R. R. Tolkien. Both writers saw fantasy as an escape from reality, but also a journey that would ultimately restore one’s perception of what was truly real.
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Related reading and listening
- The (super)natural theology of fairy-tales — Alison Milbank describes Chesterton’s belief that story-telling is an affirmation of transcendent meaning
- Christopher Hitchens vs. G. K. Chesterton — Ralph Wood compares Christopher Hitchens‘s view of the cosmos with that of G. K. Chesterton, arguing that Chesterton succeeded where Hitchens failed. (44 minutes)
- The sacramental vision of G. K. Chesterton — FROM VOL. 112Ralph C. Wood describes G. K. Chesterton’s imagination as especially fruitful in conveying grace and edification to his readers. (19 minutes)
- Ahlquist, Dale — FROM THE GUEST PAGE: Dr. Dale Ahlquist is President of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and founder of the Chesterton Schools Network.
- A fresh and refreshing imagination — FROM VOL. 111Biographer Ian Ker explains why G. K. Chesterton deserves wider recognition as a significant literary critic. (24 minutes)
- G. K. Chesterton’s defiant joy — FROM VOL. 110Biographer Kevin Belmonte on how G. K. Chesterton embraced a “defiant joy” in spite of the cynical pessimism of many of his contemporaries. (16 minutes)
- Bemused by joy — Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., on G. K. Chesterton’s awareness of the reality of both evil and joy
- God also was a Cave-man — G. K. Chesterton on the convergence of omnipotence and impotence in Bethlehem
- Accounting for “the unfathomable sadness of pagan poetry” — Biographer Ian Ker on Chesterton’s rejection of the idea of the evolution of religions
- Seeing things as they are — F. A. Lea on the imaginative vision of G. K. Chesterton
- Chesterton and Tolkien as theologians — Alison Milbank discusses how both Chesterton and Tolkien restore reason to fantasy and help us to see things as we were meant to see them. (20 minutes)
- What they saw in America — Sociologist James Nolan describes the perception of American culture of four distinguished foreign travelers: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G. K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb. (5 minutes)
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