G.K. Chesterton Archives ~ Page 8 of 14 ~ The Imaginative Conservative

To This Day a Shepherd

By José Maria J. Yulo|2021-07-24T14:54:39-05:00May 6th, 2017|Categories: Books, Catholicism, Featured, Fr. James Schall, G.K. Chesterton, Reason|

Our final cause is not tied to this world we live in. Though we inhabit the world for a rather temporary span of time, we do have enough time, no matter what polity or era we live in, to decide for ourselves whether or not we will accept the purpose for which we are created. [...]

What Is Best?

By Bradford Tuckfield|2017-05-03T22:05:11-05:00May 3rd, 2017|Categories: Conservatism, Film, G.K. Chesterton|

The upholding of tradition reflects a belief that even the individual is uncertain about what is best, and so should accept direction from the age-old wisdom encoded in our traditions. In this way, conservatism is consistent with humility in the face of life’s mysteries… In a famous scene from the movie Conan the Barbarian, Conan [...]

Solzhenitsyn on Russia and the West

By Joseph Pearce|2022-08-02T10:01:49-05:00May 2nd, 2017|Categories: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Featured, Foreign Affairs, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce, Literature, Russia|

There are moves afoot to whip up the old Cold War angst and anger and to resurrect enmity towards Russia. Liberals in the West, outraged at Russia’s resistance to their decadent agenda, are caricaturing Russia as an enemy of Western “values.” In 1998 I had the inestimable pleasure and honour of interviewing Alexander Solzhenitsyn at [...]

The Enduring Relevance of G.K. Chesterton

By Joseph Pearce|2017-04-26T23:26:04-05:00April 26th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Culture War, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce|

We need to remember, as G.K. Chesterton never forgot, that evil is its own worst enemy. If Chesterton were alive today he’d be exposing the lies of relativism, secularism, and the culture of death, and showing our generation, as he showed his, that Christian orthodoxy is the only solution to the world’s dissolution… Editor’s Note: [...]

From Utopia to Nightmare

By Bradley J. Birzer|2019-03-26T17:32:01-05:00April 11th, 2017|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, George Orwell, Literature|

In 1962, a little-known professor of English published an important book that demonstrated how the experience of the twentieth century gave the lie to the misplaced optimism of the nineteenth century… From Utopia to Nightmare by Chad Walsh (Harper Collins, 1962) Almost no one remembers Chad Walsh anymore. Our loss. A professor of English at Beloit [...]

What Is Authentic Education?

By Joseph Pearce|2019-02-05T16:29:38-06:00April 5th, 2017|Categories: Catholicism, Classical Education, Education, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Modernity, Truth|

The tragedy of modern education is that it has left us perilously ignorant of who we are, where we are, where we have come from, and where we are going. We are lost and blissfully unaware that we are heading for the abyss… Many years ago the English writer G.K. Chesterton claimed that the “coming [...]

Race Against Reason

By Joseph Pearce|2019-01-25T08:41:10-06:00March 22nd, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Immigration, Joseph Pearce, Slavery|

What unites all people essentially and what gives all people their inalienable dignity, and the rights that follow therefrom, is their essential humanity… There can be no doubt that we are living in a racially-charged climate. The problems associated with the relations between the races seem to dominate the debate in all areas of our [...]

Seer: A Tribute to the Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien

By Joseph Pearce|2018-12-26T14:48:37-06:00March 17th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Literature|

J.R.R. Tolkien knows the sunlight. He may not be a wizard but he possesses a wizard’s wisdom. To see as he sees is to see everything in the glorious sunlight of Ilûvatar, the One who sees all and knows that it is Good… It might be stretching things a little to describe the author of [...]

G.K. Chesterton’s “A Ballade of Suicide”

By Titus Techera|2018-10-15T15:03:28-05:00March 10th, 2017|Categories: Death, G.K. Chesterton, Poetry|

Do not expect G.K. Chesterton's ballade to be any kind of love poem–he wants to something else instead, to raise your eyebrow, not to say hairs on end... 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 comprising three octets and a [...]

What Is Capitalism?

By Joseph Pearce|2017-03-01T16:48:51-06:00February 17th, 2017|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Capitalism, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce|

“Capitalism” needs to be pinned down by definition; it needs to be circumscribed so that it doesn’t lead us off in increasingly meaningless and therefore futile lines of reasoning… If words are to have any value they must have definite and definable meanings. If too many meanings are ascribed to a single word, the word [...]

Laughter and the Love of Friends

By Joseph Pearce|2021-06-25T10:28:15-05:00December 26th, 2016|Categories: Christianity, Culture, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce, Love, Senior Contributors, StAR|

Ultimately the reason we should rejoice in the love of laughter as we rejoice in the love of friends is that laughter, like love, is a gift of God. There’s nothing worth the wear of winning Than laughter and the love for friends. These famous lines by Hilaire Belloc are personal favourites of mine but, [...]

“The House of Christmas”

By G.K. Chesterton|2020-12-18T21:22:22-06:00December 4th, 2016|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Poetry|

There fared a mother driven forth Out of an inn to roam; In the place where she was homeless All men are at home. The crazy stable close at hand, With shaking timber and shifting sand, Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand Than the square stones of Rome. For men are homesick in [...]

G.K. Chesterton: Eighty Years On

By Joseph Pearce|2016-11-09T21:59:56-06:00November 9th, 2016|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce|

Over the past few weeks, I’ve written essays on some significant anniversaries that fall in 2016, including the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the nine-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Now, as this year falls into Fall and prepares to go the same way as all its predecessors, I thought I’d remember another [...]

C.S. Lewis & Friends

By Joseph Pearce|2021-03-21T08:18:13-05:00October 25th, 2016|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Friendship, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Pearce, Literature, StAR|

Friendship, or philia, is one of the “loves” that C.S. Lewis elucidates and celebrates in his book, The Four Loves, the others being familial love (storge), sexual love (eros) and Divine love (caritas or agape). Although not the greatest or highest of the loves, Lewis saw friendship as the noble coming together of those who [...]