Free Republic

CHAPTER III: THE REAL OBSTACLES In the last chapter I have dealt in a preliminary fashion with the Protestant case in the conventional controversial sense. I have dealt with the objections which I suspected very early of being prejudices and which I now know to be prejudices. I have dealt last and at the greatest length with what I believe to be the noblest of all the prejudices of Protestantism: that which is simply founded on patriotism. I do not think patriotism is necessarily prejudice; but I am quite sure it must be prejudice and nothing else but prejudice, unless...

CHAPTER II: THE OBVIOUS BLUNDERS I have noted that Catholicism really is in the twentieth century what it was in the second century; it is the New Religion. Indeed its very antiquity preserves an attitude of novelty. I have always thought it striking and even stirring that in the venerable invocation of the "Tantum Ergo," which for us seems to come loaded with accumulated ages, there is still the language of innovation; of the antique document that must yield to a new rite. For us the hymn is something of an antique document itself. But the rite is always new....

There’s a great new biography about one of the Christian giants of the 20th Century. And I mean that literally. To read Kevin Belmonte's recent book Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G. K. Chesterton, is to feel a powerful sense of longing. Chesterton, as many of you may know, was the twentieth-century writer of Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man, the Father Brown mysteries, and other important works. His stalwart faith influenced great numbers of people in his own time and afterwards, including C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers. Chesterton's time, in the early part of the century, was...

The celebrated British apologist and essayist, G.K. Chesterton, had a good friend, Hilaire Belloc, who is now largely forgotten, but whose fame in his day caused George Bernard Shaw to refer to the pair as the “Chesterbelloc.” Among his many interests (such as writing a Foreword to a collection of P.G. Wodehouse short stories!), Belloc wrote a number of books and articles on the subject of economics. One of his most intriguing works was a book entitled The Servile State. In this book, written before the fall of the Russian Tsar and the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia, Belloc...

This message titled "Secularization: It's Power and Control" from the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries parts: (1 2 3 4) is rather brilliant in the examples cited and in it's construction. I cannot recommend it highly enough. In this particular segment, Ravi Zacharias elaborates on a writing from G K Chesterton regarding revolutionists and contradiction. I will be clipping several pieces of this message over the next couple of days and commenting on them, as there are several very deep and thoughtful things in this that we can all learn from, in defending ourselves from progressivism. It needs to be noted...

Chesterton on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary I do not want to be in a religion in which I am allowed to have a crucifix. I feel the same about the much more controversial question of the honour paid to the Blessed Virgin.  If people do not like that cult, they are quite right not to be Catholics.  But in people who are Catholics, or call themselves Catholics, I want the idea not only liked but loved and loved ardently, and above all proudly proclaimed. I want it to be what the Protestants are perfectly right in calling it;...

Chesterton and Saint Francis | By Joseph Pearce This essay appears in Joseph Pearce's new book Literary Giants, Literary Catholics. Chesterton enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Saint Francis of Assisi. As a small boy, long before he had an inkling of the nature of Catholicism, Chesterton was read a story by his parents about a man who gave up all his possessions, even the clothes he was wearing on his back, to follow Christ in holy poverty. From the moment the wide-eyed Gilbert first heard the story of Saint Francis, he knew he had found a friend. As such,...

A Poem and a Prayer for Michaelmas Posted by Frank Today is the Feast of St. Michael and the Archangels, also known as Michaelmas. I like the sound of that calendar name for today's feast and the knowledge that this day used to be a huge festival marking the beginning of Autumn (which is my favorite season). I actually hope that this day is still celebrated extravagantly somewhere on the planet. Next year, send me an invitation, or some Michaelmas recipes (and history!) or something.Why do I believe in angels? Because they are real. See, Our Lord said so, and he never...

Monday, July 04, 2011 Chesterton Defines and Defends Patriotism The opening section of G. K. Chesterton's essay, "The Patriotic Idea", first published in 1904, and included in G. K. Chesterton: Collected Works, Volume XX: Christendom in Dublin, Irish Impressions, The New Jerusalem, A Short History of England (also available in softcover), which was edited by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.: I The scepticism of the last two centuries has attacked patriotism as it has attacked all the other theoretic passions of mankind, and in the case of patriotism the attack has been interesting and respectable because it has come from...

Chesterton’s Stars & Stripes June 27th, 2011 by Dr. Paul KengorG. K. Chesterton is a treasure trove of wit and wisdom. Among those unearthing all sorts of gems from Chesterton’s writings is Joseph Pearce, the brilliant British scholar at Ave Maria University in Florida. (Another who continues to do outstanding work on Chesterton is Dale Ahlquist.) Pearce recently came to Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania, where he offered an intriguing European perspective on America (click here for video). Among the Europeans that Pearce was sure to include was Chesterton—and what he said is fascinating. In my view, it’s as...

CHESTERTONIANS!!! Join us for the 30th Annual G.K. Chesterton Conference “Poet and Prophet” August 4-6, 2011 Sheraton Westport Plaza St. Louis, Missouri THURSDAY, AUGUST 4 7 pm Welcome Dale Ahlquist (President of the American Chesterton Society) The Poetic Prophet, The Prophetic Poet 8:30 pm Christopher Check (Executive Vice President of the Rockford Institute) Lepanto: The Battle and the Poem FRIDAY, AUGUST 5 9 am Carl Hasler (Professor of Philosophy at Collin College) Chesterton: A Franciscan Thomist? 10:30 am Robert Moore-Jumonville (Professor of Religion at Spring Arbor University and columnist for Gilbert Magazine) Paying Attention: The Poetry of Prayer. 1 pm...

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) Author Page | Ignatius Insight   G. K. Chesterton: "Who is this guy and why haven’t I heard of him?" A pithy bio of G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist, President, American Chesterton Society I’ve heard the question more than once. It is asked by people who have just started to discover G.K. Chesterton. They have begun reading a Chesterton book, or perhaps have seen an issue of Gilbert! Magazine, or maybe they’ve only encountered a series of pithy quotations that marvelously articulate some forgotten bit of common sense. They ask the question with a mixture...

Karl Marx said that philosophers have explained the world; it is our job to change it. I say Chesterton has explained what's wrong with the wrong; it is our job to restore it. A specter is haunting the powerful and the corrupt, and that is the specter of the independent, free, renegade video journalist. That journalist seeks to correct the wrongs of the society we live in. There is a lot wrong with the society we live in. Chesterton says, [paraphrasing] "The position we now have reached is this. Starting from the state, we try to remedy the failures of...

'Tomorrow's Children' (1934) which was called 'The Unborn' in the UK This was a very controversial film in its day. It was made during the height of the eugenics movement and considered subversive at the time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSqUnqoHRFs Part I of 6

How the Great Wind Came to Beacon House How the Great Wind Came to Beacon House | G. K. Chesterton | Chapter One of Manalive | Ignatius Insight A wind sprang high in the west, like a wave of unreasonable happiness, and tore eastward across England, trailing with it the frosty scent of forests and the cold intoxication of the sea. In a million holes and corners it refreshed a man like a flagon, and astonished him like a blow. In the inmost chambers of intricate and embowered houses it woke like a domestic explosion, littering the floor with some...

When then-Sen. Barack Obama made a short video for the "peace caucus" delegates to the 2008 Iowa Caucuses, he captured the enthusiastic support of his party's pacifist wing. It was enough to propel him to the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton's ad -- showing a red telephone ringing at 3 a.m. -- only emphasized to party pacifists that Obama was their man. And, of course, leading antiwar figures like George Soros heavily bankrolled MoveOn.org and other liberal media outlets -- all echoing the same pacifist line. Pacifism -- as the name implies -- ought to lead to peace. But it too...

Dave Armstrong said... There is very little video footage of Chesterton and apparently only about 25 minutes of audio. Previously I had put up a post with much of this same material: Hear the Voice of the Great G.K. Chesterton. The virtual movies (2nd and 4th links) are fun. This guy takes a photo of Chesterton and makes it look like a movie, in conjunction with actual audio recordings.

From Toward A Truly Free Market, by John C. Medaille: G.K Chesterton put the problem like this: Capitalism is contradictory as soon as it is complete. For the master is always trying to cut down what his servant demands, and in doing so is cutting down on what his customer can spend. He is wanting to treat the same man in contradictory ways: He wants to pay him like a pauper but expects him to spend like a prince.

Chesterton on "The Human Family and the Holy Family" The Human Family and the Holy Family | From "The Story of the Family," The Superstition of Divorce | G. K. Chesterton  Indeed, there is something in the family that might loosely be called anarchist; and more correctly called amateur. As there seems something almost vague about its voluntary origin, so there seems something vague about its voluntary organisation. The most vital function it performs, perhaps the most vital function that anything can perform, is that of education; but its type of early education is far too essential to be mistaken...

"The God In The Cave" | From The Everlasting ManThis 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 shadow of such a fancy in the fact that animals were again present; for it was a cave used as a stable by the mountaineers of the uplands about Bethlehem; who still drive their cattle...

Why I Am A Catholic By G. K. Chesterton From Twelve Modern Apostles and Their Creeds (1926)Reprinted in The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 3 Ignatius Press 1990 The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that . . ." As, for instance, (1) It is the only thing that really prevents a sin from being a secret. (2) It is the only thing...

Students, particularly conservatives, can get a good idea of how much they missed in their education by reading 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Imposter by Benjamin Wiker. The names that you might expect to see in such a compendium are here, including Hayek, Chesterton and even C. S. Lewis. What may surprise some are the additions, specifically Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Aristotle. Benjamin Wiker, with each book, gives a backdrop for each author’s life and how modern Wiker then meticulously analyzes each book, comparing them to situations that a modern conservative reader...

Now, it is true, and trivial, that to assert what is false is foolish, and to assert what is false vociferously is idiotic. But in order to claim a man is dogmatically asserting a falsehood, we must have knowledge that what he is saying is false. That is, we must ourselves assert a truth: that the man’s belief is false. This is a long-winded way of saying that we must be dogmatic—in the sense of declaring a view with certainty—in cursing dogmatism. This must always have been obvious. Consider that the Bartletts and Hackings of the world would dogmatically disallow...

...For there was one particular monk in that Augustinian monastery in the German forests, who may be said to have had a single and special talent for emphasis; for emphasis and nothing except emphasis; for emphasis with the quality of earthquake. He was the son of a slatecutter; a man with a great voice and a certain volume of personality; brooding, sincere, decidedly morbid; and his name was Martin Luther. Neither Augustine nor the Augustinians would have desired to see the day of that vindication of the Augustinian tradition; but in one sense, perhaps, the Augustinian tradition was avenged after...

  In that passage from Orthodoxy so familiar that it is almost now cliché, G. K. Chesterton wrote that there are a thousand angles at which a man may fall but only one at which he stands. By this he argued for the unique, enduring character of orthodox Church doctrine, of the one, true, upstanding strand of Right Teaching. Though the same tired heresies may reappear to contest it -- mutated, renamed, warmed-over -- the old, wild truth remains standing, "reeling but erect."   This well-worn lesson takes on a new freshness, I think, when applied to the culture...

An interesting 9-minute interview with James O'Keefe (Acorn video producer) talking about one of his biggest inspirations: GK Chesterton. (Audio)

Almost 75 years after the death of G. K. Chesterton and 45 years after the death of C. S. Lewis, millions continue to read them as guides and gurus. New readers will pick up a book, or even just an essay or two, and become lifelong fans and devotees. These portly, homely, undramatic men are still the bookish Christian's rock stars.   Their new readers, having become fans, excitedly look up the lists of their books -- and stop dead. There's just too much to read, and too little time, and some of those books look like slow going....

1. Definition of “Atheism” There is confusion and debate about the term “atheism” and its definition. The term “atheism” finds its etymology in the Greek combination of “a” and “theos”. What “atheos” means is, as with any term, subject to context (and perhaps personal interpretation). Note that if an atheist states, “I do not believe in God”, this is technically not a statement about God’s existence or lack thereof. Does atheos mean “no God”, “without God”, “lack God belief” or “God does not exist”? Early Christians were referred to as “atheists” because they did not believe in the Greek or...

The Arab television network Al-Jazeera has sent a documentary crew on the road in the United States to talk to voters and they visited the Northwest Indiana town of Chesterton this week. The crew, Graham Meriwether and Chris Henderson, are touring communities in the country, part of the Red Blue Road Trip project, to get a read on voters as the historic 2008 Presidential election. The two drive from town to town in a 2002 Honda and edit the footage together on the go. As for the fact they work with Al-Jazeera, the crew hasn't had much trouble. Henderson said,...

‘I do not know the true reason for a bat not having feathers; I only know that Darwin gave a false reason for its having wings. And the more the Darwinians explain, the more certain I become that Darwinism was wrong. All their explanations ignore the fact that Darwinism supposes an animal feature to appear first, not merely in an incomplete stage, but in an almost imperceptible stage. The member of a sort of mouse family, destined to found the bat family, could only have differed from his brother mice by some minute trace of membrane; and why should that...

The fictional fantasy in The Club of Queer Trades reflects Chesterton’s genuine hope for a just society. He spent his life arguing that such a society was really possible. Argumentation is about persuasion. Chesterton wanted to convince the world that there was a better social structure than either Socialism or Capitalism. But it was not a system that could be imposed on a society; it was something a society had to learn about and then choose. Distributism, he argued, is not something “done to people,” but “done by people.”56 Like Christianity, Distributism has not been an ideal tried and found...

The Ale-Drinker's Answer to Hegel: Chesterton's The Everlasting Man by John Zmirak 9/16/08 One of the books I'm teaching this semester is a title that, over the years, I've found indispensable for my sanity, such as it is: G. K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. If you don't know the book, stop reading now. Click over and order your copy. Go ahead, I can wait . . . When your package arrives, settle into a comfy chair with a decent supply of monastic beer, because you're in for a wild ride. In this easy book of medium length, Chesterton tries the...

"The God In The Cave" | From The Everlasting ManThis 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 shadow of such a fancy in the fact that animals were again present; for it was a cave used as a stable by the mountaineers of the uplands about Bethlehem; who still drive their cattle...

The American's Creed http://www.ushistory.org/documents/creed.htm by William Tyler Page I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws to respect...

Don’t ask me what I think of the war. I’ll tell you anyway. I won’t tell you what you want to hear. I won’t tell you whether I am for or against it. I will tell you only that I think the same way G. K. Chesterton thinks about the war. Which war? Any war. I refer to his position because, curiously enough, it coincides with the Catholic Church’s position. We all know all the arguments against killing. And even against fighting. The Bible is pretty clear. Thou shall not kill. If your enemy strikes you on one cheek, offer...

Rod Dreher's recent defection to the Eastern Orthodox reminds all of us of the need to see the Church upside down in order to see it the way it really is.We converts from Protestantism find it difficult to shake the idea that the church should be what we expect it to be: a congregation of good people just like us. We have religious utopianism running in our Puritan veins. We expect the church to be made up of saints who are already perfect...just like us.Oh yes, in theory we say that we are all 'redeemed sinners'. We love to...

Why I Am A CatholicBy G. K. Chesterton From Twelve Modern Apostles and Their Creeds (1926) Reprinted in The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 3 Ignatius Press 1990 The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that . . ." As, for instance, (1) It is the only thing that really prevents a sin from being a secret. (2) It is the only...

Amazon review: In an article published the day before his death, G.K. Chesterton called The Man Who Was Thursday "a very melodramatic sort of moonshine." Set in a phantasmagoric London where policemen are poets and anarchists camouflage themselves as, well, anarchists, his 1907 novel offers up one highly colored enigma after another. If that weren't enough, the author also throws in an elephant chase and a hot-air-balloon pursuit in which the pursuers suffer from "the persistent refusal of the balloon to follow the roads, and the still more persistent refusal of the cabmen to follow the balloon." But Chesterton is...

Chesterton's reputation as one of the key figures in Christian literature during the 20th century is linked inextricably with the concept of "orthodoxy." His book of that title, published in 1908, was, according to Wilfrid Ward, a major milestone in the development of Christian thought. Wilfrid Ward was certainly not alone in his flattering praise of Chesterton's book. Its influence on the intellectual development of a whole generation was summed up by Dorothy L. Sayers. She had first read Orthodoxy as a schoolgirl when her faith had been threatened by adolescent doubt. In later years she confessed that its "invigorating...

The difficulty of explaining "why I am a Catholic" is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, "It is the only thing that . . ." As, for instance, (1) It is the only thing that really prevents a sin from being a secret. (2) It is the only thing in which the superior cannot be superior; in the sense of supercilious. (3) It is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of...

"Catholic intellectual?" Is that a contradiction in terms? Of course not. It is silly to say so, even though progressives like to float the idea every once in a while when they are having a hard time pushing through one of their favored reforms. The 20th century was, after all, the century of Chesterton, Belloc, Christopher Dawson, Ronald Knox and Jacques Maritain.In fact, it would be easier to make the case that Catholic intellectuals sometimes spend too much time being intellectuals, too much time with scholarly explorations of the Faith, and not enough with the child-like imagery on their Christmas...

Paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the collision of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really inconsistent; but they were such that it was hard to hold simultaneously. Let us follow for a moment the clue of the martyr and the suicide; and take the case of courage. No quality has ever so much addled the brains and tangled the definitions of merely rational sages. Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. "He...

Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society and host of the EWTN Television series, "G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense", visited Australia in May as a keynote speaker at the National Chesterton Conference, held this year in Melbourne. This conference was promoted jointly by the Australian Chesterton Society and the Thomas More Centre (Melbourne). While in Melbourne, Dale Ahlquist was also a featured speaker at the inaugural Thomas More Dinner. The present article was written for 'AD2000' following his return to the United States. He was one of the most well-known and most beloved writers of the early...

A Christmas Carol  by G.K.Chesterton  The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap, His hair was like a light. (O weary, weary were the world, But here is all aright.) The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast His hair was like a star. (O stern and cunning are the kings, But here the true hearts are.)  The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart, His hair was like a fire. (O weary, weary is the world, But here the world's desire.) The Christ-child stood on Mary's knee, His hair was like a crown, And all the flowers looked up at Him, And all the...

The Neanderthal Creed November 18, 2003 Senator Edward Kennedy, who prides himself on opposing discrimination against all minorities, committed a gaffe the other day. Speaking of President Bush’s judicial appointees, he pledged that the Senate won’t confirm any “Neanderthals.” As a Neanderthal, I find that shockingly insensitive. Senator Kennedy is, after all, the uncle-in-law of California’s new governor, who achieved great fame playing Neanderthals in the movies. How can he be so openly contemptuous of the concerns of the Neanderthal community? President Bush hasn’t even nominated any real Neanderthals to the Federal judiciary. His choices are all far too “progressive”...

Limbaugh the Lawbreaker October 14, 2003 Doesn’t anyone have mixed feelings about Rush Limbaugh? His announcement that he has a drug addiction, and will spend a month in rehab, has brought forth two reactions: unalloyed sympathy from those who share his views, and fierce condemnation from those who don’t. The former, the general conservative response to the news, I can at least understand. But the other doesn’t make much sense. It generally runs like this: “Limbaugh is so judgmental about other people, it serves him right. Maybe this experience will teach him a little tolerance.” Say what? I disagree with...

Race with the Devil From the Hell of Hate to the Well of Mercy By Joseph Pearce "A sound atheist cannot be too careful of the books that he reads." So said C. S. Lewis in his autobiographical apologia, Surprised by Joy. These words continue to resonate across the years that separate me from the bitterness of my past.  What is true of the atheist is as true of the racist, which is what I was. A hell of hatred consumed my youth. Eventually I stumbled out into the brilliance of Christian day, but, looking back along that path, I...

Lepanto by G.K.Chesterton White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run; There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared, It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard; It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips; For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships. They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy, They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea, And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony...

I saw in a newspaper paragraph the other day the following entertaining and deeply philosophical incident. A man was enlisting as a soldier at Portsmouth, and some form was put before him to be filled up, common, I suppose, to all such cases, in which was, among other things, an inquiry about what was his religion. With an equal and ceremonial gravity the man wrote down the word "Methuselahite." Whoever looks over such papers must, I should imagine, have seen some rum religions in his time; unless the Army is going to the dogs. But with all his specialist knowledge...

The Introduction to The Well and the Shallows is entitled "An Apology for Buffoons," while another chapter, "Shocking the Modernists," has to do with bores. ...Chesterton tells of reading in the daily paper "about a notable outburst among the most advanced intellects of the Church of England." The headline...stated "Youth Finds Church a Bore: A Girl Tells Clergy"...[the girl went on to say]..."I don't think public worship has any attraction whatsoever for the young. Religion is supposed to express God through truth and beauty, we are told, but in this age of specialisation people turn to science, art, and philosophy...