Detroit Area Talk - “The Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton in the Modern Age”

[Lux_et_veritas]

People in the Metro Detroit area may be interested in this talk by Joseph Pearce. From our parish bulletin, in the pastor’s column, Fr. Perrone writes:

News item! Those of you who try to keep abreast of the great Catholic revival that is slowly taking place side by side with the many horribly bad things that we often hear about may know that there is a brilliant Catholic writer, a convert to the faith, who has written books on some of the giant Catholic literary figures such as Chesterton, Belloc and their company. His name is Joseph Pearce and his books are published by Ignatius Press. He will be here, in two weeks, on Sunday November 20th at 2:30 p.m. in the gym speaking on** “The Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton in the Modern Age”**. This special event does come to us at a cost, however (Mr. Pearce has to make a living, and his profession is writing and speaking: a rather hard way to survive!). He is being sponsored here by The Grotto Press which, as you may know, was begun here for the publishing of Catholic reading materials. The cost of his lecture is $10/person, $15/couple and $20/family… This promises to be a unique and most interesting offering. Please tell all your Catholic friends and students about this special event. It’s not often that most of you are able to attend a talk of this caliber. So, please do get the word out and plan to attend the event yourselves.

If you are in the area, stop by.

 

[Della]

I had the great privilege to hear Joseph Pearce talk at the Chesterton Conferences held every June at St. Thomas University hosted by the American Chesterton Society. Believe me, no one who goes to hear Mr. Pearce talk about the greatest defender of the faith of the 20th century, G. K. Chesterton, will not only not be bored but will come away wondering why someone like GKC is not being talked about and read at every university in the country.

 

[Lux_et_veritas]

Della:

I had the great privilege to hear Joseph Pearce talk at the Chesterton Conferences held every June at St. Thomas University hosted by the American Chesterton Society. Believe me, no one who goes to hear Mr. Pearce talk about the greatest defender of the faith of the 20th century, G. K. Chesterton, will not only not be bored but will come away wondering why someone like GKC is not being talked about and read at every university in the country.

Thanks so much for sharing. I am unfamiliar with both, so I am looking forward to attending. I hope others will share their experiences with Joseph Pearce too.

 

[AquinasXVI]

Joseph Pearce has written what could possibly be the definitive biography of GKC. The book Wisdom and Innocence is an excellent read from front to back all 400 pages of it. Joseph Pearce used to be an anarchist/atheist in England and GKC is one of his heroes that brought him to the CC. If you can go to this it is worth more than price of admission. I’d pay $40 to hear him talk about GKC!

in XT.

 

[Ghosty]

AquinasXVI: Interesting that you say that Joseph Pearce was an atheist anarchist. I myself was the same, and while I still consider myself to be politically and economically an anarchist (in the vein of Dorothy Day), I am as far from atheistic as one can imagine. G.K. Chesterton is one of my personal heroes as well, and I think there is something about his style and inherent reason that appeals to the “logical” folks.

G.K. Chesterton is quite simply one of the most incredible English writers of 20th Century, if not all English history. It’s not hard to appreciate his depth and levity, and there’s really no comparison to his work. The best I can think of is that he’s a perfect mix of Oscar Wilde and St. Thomas Aquinas. His genius is so under-appreciated in the English speaking world, even the Catholic parts, that it’s tragic. I definately encourage you to read his works, and go to any talks about him. I espescially recommend the book “Orthodoxy”, which was written by Chesterton before he became Catholic, but you wouldn’t know it at all; he even calls Peter the “Rock of Faith”.

Chesterton is a modern “philosopher-scholar” who was neither a philosopher, nor a scholar, but a simple journalist. His wit and “common sense” is both wordly and other-worldly. I don’t mean to build him up too much, but quite frankly it’s hard to build him up enough. I recommend you listen to the archived “Apostle of Common Sense” episodes on EWTN. If you’re unsure of how to access them, just let me know.

Peace and God bless!

 

[AquinasXVI]

Ghosty:

Do you have a Chesterton society in your area? If you don’t contact Dale Ahlquist and he’ll give you advice on how to get one started. We have one here in Houston and it’s headed by a brilliant philosopher/theologian priest.

I cannot agree with you more, he to me may be the most important english writer in the last 300 years, right next to Shakespeare and Tolkien. Sorry to the Lewis fans, but if it were to be a choice of one or the other, GKC is far beyond CS who is way more popular. One will get so much more in reading GKC than Lewis.

On the upside, the popularity of Chesterton is growing on a grassroots level, more people today are reading his works once more.

Thanks for the response.

in XT.