G.K. Chesterton Archives ~ Page 9 of 14 ~ The Imaginative Conservative

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 [...]

Merrie England: A Spiritual Journey with Joseph Pearce

By K. V. Turley|2016-10-20T15:47:29-05:00September 30th, 2016|Categories: Books, England, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce|

Be careful what you read—it may change you, for better or worse. In the case of Joseph Pearce, his early reading made him a violent white supremacist. It also landed him in jail. While there, he continued to read; only this time, he read the works of G.K. Chesterton. It was not so much that [...]

Music, Digestion, and Modern Philosophy

By G.K. Chesterton|2016-09-17T23:20:16-05:00September 17th, 2016|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Modernity, Music|

A newspaper comment on something I recently wrote has given me a momentary illusion of having really got hold of what is the matter with modernity. For that serpent is as slippery as an eel, that demon is as elusive as an elf. But for the moment I thought I had him—or at least a perfect [...]

Hilaire Belloc & G.K. Chesterton: Romanticizing the Middle Ages?

By Joseph Pearce|2016-09-14T05:00:24-05:00September 13th, 2016|Categories: Distributism, Economics, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce|

One of the wonderful things about The Imaginative Conservative is the way in which it has become a powerful forum for thoughtful and thought-provoking writers to exchange thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas. There’s none of the knee-jerk and thoughtless reaction to events to be found on other cultural and political journals. Deo gratias! This does not mean, [...]

Nazissism: The Totalitarianism of the Self

By Joseph Pearce|2023-05-15T19:56:27-05:00September 8th, 2016|Categories: Catholicism, Culture, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Homosexual Unions, Joseph Pearce, Philosophy, Virtue|

In our modern age, the dragon of pride has been unleashed to do its worst, narcissism turned to Nazissism. More than a century ago, in 1911 to be precise, Holbrook Jackson published a book entitled Platitudes in the Making, a volume of aphorisms expressive of Jackson’s radical relativism. “Truth,” Jackson proclaimed platitudinously, “is one’s own [...]

Should Christians Romanticize the Middle Ages?

By James Baresel|2020-07-26T13:15:21-05:00September 7th, 2016|Categories: Architecture, Catholicism, Distributism, Economics, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc|

Many Catholics treat the High Middle Ages as a veritable ideal of civilization. But the medieval period produced problematic ideas about aesthetics, eccentric theories of economics, and dangerous assumptions about politics. Over a decade ago a then-acquaintance of mine inquired as to my economic views, my response being that I was “a distributist by default.” [...]

Why Won’t G.K. Chesterton Disappear?

By Joseph Pearce|2016-09-06T15:52:46-05:00September 6th, 2016|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Literature|

The following is an interview between Michael Bradley and Joseph Pearce. Mr. Bradley: Dale Ahlquist maintains that we are in the midst of a G.K. Chesterton revival. Do you agree? If so, what is it about Chesterton, and/or about the present age, that is driving his renewed popularity? Can you think of a few particular [...]

What Does Chesterton Have To Do with Solzhenitsyn?

By Joseph Pearce|2018-11-09T11:35:32-06:00September 1st, 2016|Categories: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Distributism, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Senior Contributors|

At first sight, it would seem that G.K. Chesterton and Alexander Solzhenitsyn have very little in common. The one has a reputation for jollity and rambunctiousness, the other for sobriety and solemn sternness. One penned swashbuckling fantasies about lovable eccentrics, the other wrote gritty works of realism set in prison camps or cancer wards. Although [...]

Yes, Let’s Talk about Religion & Politics

By Joseph Pearce|2019-09-28T09:50:27-05:00July 27th, 2016|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Existence of God, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Pearce, Religion, Senior Contributors, StAR|

It is sometimes said that religion and politics are the two topics that should not be discussed in polite company. The result is that nothing of importance is ever discussed, reducing the conversation of “polite company” to the level of the banal, at best, or to the level of gossip, at worst. And yet the [...]

The New Imperialism & the Death of Democracy

By Joseph Pearce|2019-06-13T10:22:19-05:00July 15th, 2016|Categories: C.S. Lewis, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, George Orwell, Government, Joseph Pearce, Politics, Senior Contributors|

“It is hard to make government representative when it is also remote.” G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, August 17, 1918 The problem with the world in which we find ourselves is that it exists on the level of platitude. People no longer think, they merely regurgitate what they’ve been taught. Thus, for instance, all thoroughly [...]

The Great Books vs. The Great Conversation

By Joseph Pearce|2019-06-11T17:56:14-05:00June 24th, 2016|Categories: Education, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Great Books, Joseph Pearce, Liberal Learning|

Readers of The Imaginative Conservative will have a great and healthy respect for the Great Books of civilization, those seminal tomes which have helped define who we are, why we are and where we are. Our culture would be impoverished without them. Indeed, it would be rendered penurious in their absence. It is no surprise, [...]

“Remembering Belloc”: Prolific, Versatile, & Controversial Author

By Joseph Pearce|2020-07-15T14:20:57-05:00June 9th, 2016|Categories: Books, Featured, Fr. James Schall, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce|

Considering the unjustified neglect of Hilaire Belloc and the more recent renewal of interest, Fr. James Schall’s book, “Remembering Belloc,” which remembers the man and his genius, is most welcome. Remembering Belloc by James V. Schall, S.J. (192 pages, St. Augustine’s Press, 2013) […]

Songs of Education

By G.K. Chesterton|2017-06-13T12:27:53-05:00May 29th, 2016|Categories: Education, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Poetry|

I. History The Roman threw us a road, a road, And sighed and strolled away: The Saxon gave us a raid, a raid, A raid that came to stay; The Dane went west, but the Dane confessed That he went a bit too far; And we all became, by another name, The Imperial race we [...]

Top Ten Books for My Desert Island

By Joseph Pearce|2025-03-14T15:32:44-05:00May 24th, 2016|Categories: Books, C.S. Lewis, Featured, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Homer, Joseph Pearce, Plato|

G.K. Chesterton was once asked what he would most like to have with him if he found himself marooned on a desert island. He replied, somewhat whimsically, that he’d like to have a book on practical shipbuilding. In this, if not in too much else, I’d like to beg to differ with the great man. [...]