G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the greatest thinkers and authors of the twentieth century. A major influence on C.S. Lewis, Chesterton wrote one hundred books, two hundred short stories, four thousand newspaper essays, and more—all very thought provoking and often humorous.
Was G.K. Chesterton a Socialist?
G.K. Chesterton’s ideas concerning government intervention in the economy have led some to believe that he may have been a socialist. They argue that the political creed of distributism, which Chesterton advocated, would involve the coercive redistribution of wealth. But are these critics right in their characterization of Chesterton’s ideas? One of the weirdest [...]
“My Name Is Lazarus”: G.K. Chesterton’s Converts
In “My Name is Lazarus,” a collection of thirty-four essays by thirty-four Chesterton-influenced converts, Dale Ahlquist presents us with a compelling anthology of personal redemption stories. Each tells a story that hits home—probably because each tells a story of coming home. My Name is Lazarus: 34 Stories of Converts Whose Path to Rome Was [...]
Beauty and the Imagination
The imagination is a gift from God, given in His own image, to conceive of a Glorious Reality that does exist, that we cannot yet fully see... Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Aaron Ames, as he considers the Divine source of beauty and imagination.—W. Winston Elliott [...]
Tucker Carlson: The New G.K. Chesterton?
Rather than being condemned as a manipulative populist feeding the people’s paranoia, Tucker Carlson should be commended for asking us to reconsider the first principles of conservatism, and for addressing the same ideas that G.K Chesterton also believed to be a threat to society: materialism, imperialism, feminism, and progressivism... Responding to Mitt Romney’s op-ed in [...]
“The God in the Cave”
This sketch of the human story began in a cave; the cave which popular science associates with the cave-man and in which practical discovery has really found archaic drawings of animals. The second half of human history, which was like a new creation of the world, also begins in a cave. There is even a [...]
Christianity’s Home in Homelessness
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join Casey Spinks, as he examines the Christian notion of home. —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher The history of Western philosophy may be but a footnote on Plato, but the history of the whole of Western philosophy, theology, politics, science, art, and [...]
Home and Hearth: A Cautionary Christmas With Washington Irving
In the 1820s, Washington Irving was credited with inspiring the romantic revival of Christmas in America. His Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman relayed sentimental tales of the British holiday with all its romance and traditions. The five Christmas tales were later published in 1875 as a separate collection titled Old Christmas.* Having lived in London and its [...]
Cultivating Friendship in a Fractured Age
What is friendship? Why is it important and why is it worth cultivating? These axiomatic questions form a significant part of the thought and writing of C. S. Lewis. In a letter to his lifelong friend, Arthur Greeves, Lewis touched upon the heart and meaning of friendship: The First [Universal Friend] is the alter [...]
G.K. Chesterton’s “A Ballade of Suicide”
Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords readers the opportunity to join Titus Techera as he reflects on the meaning of G.K. Chesterton's "A Ballade of Suicide." —W. Winston Elliott III, Publisher G.K. Chesterton published "A Ballade of Suicide" in his journal, The Eye-Witness, September 21, 1911. This is a ballade, an old French form [...]
G.K. Chesterton’s “What’s Wrong With the World”
The next time someone tells you that reactionaries and other assorted defenders of the family and private property do not care about the poor, invite them to read G.K. Chesterton’s final words in What’s Wrong with the World… A man of great good cheer, G. K. Chesterton was well known for his sunny disposition [...]
“The Blue Cross”
Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men’s real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?… Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, [...]
The Dark Side of Normal
Sin is the most normal thing of all throughout the ages of human experience. It is far more normal than virtue. There are always far more sinners than there are saints... “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” G.K. Chesterton (What’s Wrong with the [...]
The Contemplative Mood: Restoring God to Public Life
Contemporary culture is characterized by a morbid self-awareness that destroys the joy of life and tosses everything it touches into a dark pit of closed and inverted self-centeredness. If we want God back in our public life, we have to restore a “contemplative mood”—a reflectiveness that runs like a warm and sweet underground river [...]
What is Normal?
The real test of normality is whether we consider the collective experience of human history to be more authentically normal than the current norms imposed by contemporary fads and fashions and the ascendant ideologies of which the fads and fashions are but the social expression… It is intriguing that being normal is normally seen [...]