Speaking of Clerihews

 

Over the years I've been fortunate to have a number of my clerihews published in Gilbert . The current tally is 50 individual poems. Due to some mix-up, four of those were published a second time.

The last one published was a Robert Burns one in the May/June 2022 issue.

Although I did not attend the Conference last year, I did submit several clerihews for the Clerihew Contest. Alas, they did not make the winners' list, nor have they appeared since in any issue. So unless one of those that I submitted last July make it into print in the future, the tally will likely remain at 50.

Not a bad total.

Oh, I'm still writing clerihews, and will continue to post them here, but I've stopped submitting to the magazine for now.

Here's the published list in alphabetical order:

Achilles - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017
After that day in Moriah, young Isaac - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017
Albert Einstein - Gilbert Magazine, September 2009

Alexa - Gilbert May/June 2020

Anne Rice - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

As a director, Ed Wood - Gilbert May/June 2020

A somber Marquis de Sade - Gilbert May/June 2017

At Nicaea, St. Nicholas - Gilbert! May/June 2019

Ayn Rand - Gilbert May/June 2020

Charles Bukowski - Gilbert January/February 2017

Condoleeza Rice - Gilbert Magazine, June/July 2007

Dr. Mary Gatter - Gilbert May/June 2017

e (cummings) e - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

Elizabeth Warren - Gilbert May/June 2020

Evangelista Torricelli - Gilbert January/February 2019

Fidel Castro - Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

Fred Rogers - Gilbert November/December 2018

Geoffrey Chaucer - Gilbert May/June 2020

G. K. Chesterton - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017

Herman Melville -  Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

I don’t know if Rudyard Kipling - Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

In his early life Thomas Merton - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

In those woods, Robert Frost- Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2009

Irascible St. Jerome - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017

Jackson Pollock - Gilbert! May/June 2019

Jean Paul Sartre - Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

Lot's wife - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

Methuselah - Gilbert! July/August 2018

Napoleon Bonaparte - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017

One of the aims of ISIS - Gilbert May/June 2017

     One of the aims of ISIS - Gilbert May/June 2020

Paolo Uccello - Gilbert November/December 2018

President James Polk - Gilbert Magazine, May/June 2011

Prolific Stephen King - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

Robert Burns – Gilbert May/June 2022

Rudyard Kipling - Gilbert April/May 2007 

Saintly King Henry - Gilbert November/December 2018

Steven Wright - Gilbert May/June 2017

     Steven Wright - Gilbert! May/June 2019

St. Dominic - Gilbert November/December 2018

St. Francis of Assisi - Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

St. Thomas Aquinas - Gilbert November/December 2018

There was a side of J. R. R. Tolkien - Gilbert Nov/Dec 2017

Titus Oates - Gilbert! May/June 2019

Tron - Gilbert November/December 2018

TV’s Dr. House - Gilbert Magazine, April/May 2007

Vladimir Kosma Zworykin - Gilbert Magazine, March/April 2011

Vladimir Putin - Gilbert (March/April) 2017

When Alexander Pope - Gilbert May/June 2017

     When Alexander Pope - Gilbert! May/June 2019

When he was young St. Polycarp - Gilbert May/June 2017

     When he was young St. Polycarp - Gilbert! May/June 2019

When talking with Socrates - Gilbert Magazine, January/February 2007

When Siddhartha Gautama - Gilbert Magazine, July/August 2009

Yvonne De Carlo - Gilbert! March/April 2021 

St. Blaise

 

It's probably safe to assume Saint Blaise
is enjoying Paradise these days.
Martyrdom likely led him to eternal glory
and not just some fish story.

Where's the Chesterton Biography Movie?

In recent years we have been treated to biographical movies about J. R. R. Tolkien (Tolkien) and C. S. Lewis (Shadowlands, The Most Reluctant Convert). But as far as I know, we have had no biographical film about G. K. Chesterton, despite his friendship with Tolkien and his influence on Lewis.

Now Chesterton has appeared in segments of the in the EWTN series G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense. And, of course, his character Father Brown has been the subject of at least two movies (Father Brown. Detective and The Detective) and two television series (the first in 1974 and a current one that began in 2013 and is still being produced). I've even heard of  movies based on Magic and The Man Who Was Thursday, though I have seen neither. 

But no biographical movies. 

There's potential, certainly. His discovery of faith and his later conversion to Catholicism, his encounter with the diabolist, his courtship of Frances, the debates with Shaw, the Marconi scandal, and so on.

But no biopics.

I can think of a few possible reasons.

His books are not as popular or as widely known as those of Tolkien or Lewis. His audience tends to be more limited, and for a long time his reputation had waned or was obscured. 

His writing style, while popular in his day, is sometimes a challenge for modern readers, hence he is less read than Tolkien and Lewis. Father Brown is his most popular character, but the two Father Brown television shows were shown in the U.S. on PBS, which tends to draw a small audience. .   

Chesterton died in the 1930's while Lewis lived until the 1960's and Tolkien to the 1970's, so he is a more distant figure.

There have been accusations of anti-Semitism, which, while supporters have argued  persuasively against them, still linger. Certainly those accusations have interfered with his cause for canonization. One suspects the possibility of controversy has made movie makers hesitant.

And, to be honest, he was not photogenic, especially later in life when he was very heavy and dressed in eccentric ways. Even as a young man before he gained weight he was not exactly a looker. (I say this as one who always described himself as having a face made for radio!)

Though, apparently, Frances didn't mind!

Nor, fortunately, did my wife when it came to me!   

Whatever the reason, I am aware of no credible interest in a biographical film celebrating his life.

There may still be a chance some day of a Chesterton biography in our theaters. It could be something The Society of G. K. Chesterton might consider promoting, though I am not aware of any efforts on their part currently.

Until then, we will just have to content ourselves with the pleasure of reading his works.  

Princess Diana

 

In response to some unkind comments about Princess Diana in the November/December Gilbert, I have only two things to say:

1. I was always taught it's rude to speak ill of the dead in that way.

2. Princess Diana is a distant relative. 

C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity

I bought my copy of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis February 25, 1980.

I know this because the receipt is still in the book. I bought it those four decades ago at the now defunct Village Green Book Store here in Rochester, N.Y.

I was on a C. S. Lewis binge back in those days. I would only later really discover the greatness of  Chesterton. 

Currently, I'm trying to increase my spiritual reading, so I thought it was a good time to reread this book, which is based on radio addresses Lewis gave.

It's only been some 40 years, after all!

Unlike the Village Green Bookstore, the ideas in the book are clearly not defunct.

And as I was reading, it hit me that they seem really familiar. I have used many of the same explanations and arguments myself over the last 40 years.

The more I read, the more I began to wonder if this book was the source of some of my own thinking, or if what he wrote clarified ideas that were forming in my mind at the time that I read the book. His method of creating common situations, anecdotes, or "parables" to help explain more complex theological points - such as his description of a writer creating a novel to help explain how God is outside of time - is a technique I have used in my own teaching and theological discussions. Did I learn that from him? Or did he simply reinforce a tendency already in me?

I was not aware of it at the time, but I now know that his own conversion came about in part from reading G.K. Chesterton, so I began wondering if some of Lewis's ideas came from Chesterton or were clarified by reading him. Perhaps I'm just another link in a chain.

I'm almost done with Mere Christianity. I'm also rereading The Screwtape Letters as part of a Catholic reading group as well.

I suspect I will be rereading more Lewis when I am finished with these books.

Chesterton (and Friends) Reading in 2022

Each year, I keep a tally of works read - books, plays, etc. And a number of those works this past year certainly fit under the heading of "Chesterton and Friends."

Chesterton is well represented: 

The Ballad of the White Horse 
Lepanto: With Explanatory Notes and Commentary 
The Secret of Father Brown 

"The Donnington Affair" 

“The Vampire of the Village”  
St. Thomas Aquinas 

The last work was reread as part of the group reading by our local Chesterton Society. 

I had reread The Lord of the Rings last year. This year, Tolkien was represented by The Father Christmas Letters.

C. S.  Lewis put in an appearance with two of his Narnia books that I reread: 

The Silver Chair 

The Last Battle 

Though more of a predecessor than a "friend," George MacDonald also joined the tally with Phantastes. 

A more recent "friend" of Chesterton is Joseph Pearce. I read two of his histories:

Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church 

Faith of our Fathers: A History of True England  

I also read a recent novel in which Chesterton, Lewis. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield are characters! In Toward the Gleam by T. M. Doran, Chesterton even saves the life of the main character.

Finally, Chesterton was a fan of  Dickens, and though Dickens is not a "friend" the way Tolkien or even Lewis would be, I think it's safe to include Oliver Twist in my tally.

Next year, there will certainly be more Chesterton, Lewis, and Dickens. I'm already in the process of rereading The Everlasting Man with my Chesterton Society group, and The Screwtape Letters with my Campion reading group. I'm in the process of trying to read all the Father Brown mysteries. I have only The Scandal of Father Brown and "The Mask of Midas" to go, so they are on my list for 2023. I recently got a copy of The Story of the Family by Dale Ahlquist, and will read that in the coming months. I also plan to reread Dickens' David Copperfield.  

Who knows what words of other friends will also pass before my eyes.

Merry Christmas

 

               Jesus
               came to save all,
               the lowly and the great,
               but chose to come as one of the
               lowly.

Toward the Gleam (T. M. Doran)

One thing I did notice among some recent books written by Catholic writers of a certain school is fictionalized versions of actual historical figures. This proved true in Toward the Gleam by T. M. Doran. 

Among the folks who show up are G.K. Chesterton (who at one point saves the life of the main character!), C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Agatha Christie, Edith Stein, and Winston Churchill (!). The main character is also a famous individual (under an assumed name). I won't reveal who he is, but I was able to figure it out early in the book.

Chesterton actually shows up just twice - but, as I mentioned, he arrives at just the right moment to save the main character.

Lewis and Barfield show up a few times, offering insights and advice.

And Christie, appropriately, provides a mystery.

The premise of the book is that a college professor (a philologist) on a hike finds box made of a strange metal containing a book written in mysterious runes. The main character spends years trying to translate the runes, eventually discovering the book is about an ancient previously unknown civilization.

Along the way a criminal mastermind, who seeks knowledge from that civilization thinking it would give him great power, discovers the main character has something connected with that civilization, but does not know exactly what it is. The villain tries to cajole, bribe, then threaten the main character and his family and friends in an effort to obtain that artifact. Some attempts on the life of the main character are made (and along the way several people are indeed killed), but he is saved through luck, his own resources, and the help of his friends (the folks mentioned earlier).

I won't reveal more of the plot.

The characterizations were believable. The plot moves along. The philosophical discussions don't bog down the story. It was fun recognizing the famous folks and what this book is really about. There are a few elements that stretch credulity (it is fiction, after all), but all the loose threads are resolved by the end.

A Chestertonian would find much in this book to like. 

I'll continue, for now

 

In my last post, I noted that so few people seem to be following this blog any more - even the former team members.

I got no responses. 

This used to be a respectable blog. There were some good writers. When they asked me to join I felt honored.

I've decided to continue for now. Chesterton and the "friends" - writers who knew him, were influenced by him, or who are like him in some ways - are too important to simply ignore.

Who knows, maybe some time in the future someone will be inspired by something here. 

So ...

 

I've been attempting to keep this blog alive. But it seems that very few people read the new posts - even my fellow team members appear to have abandoned it entirely.

Is it worth the time and effort? I know blogs are considered passe, but then, some people think Chesterton is passe. 

Any responses? 

Chesterton and Anti-Semitism

In 1978 I was counselor and a life guard at a summer camp. During one session, the boys' cabin I was working with played a softball game against a girls' cabin. The girls trounced the boys.

After the game,  my fellow male counselors and I chided the boys for allowing girls to beat them. We were echoing the kind of comments we had heard our high school coaches saying to us.

That night, a couple of the female counselors approached me. They pointed out the inappropriateness of our comments disparaging girls playing sports. I listened, recognizing they had a point.

When I think of that incident, I also recall times when, as a grade school and middle school student in the 1960's, friends and I made a number ethnic jokes. We thought we were being funny; I realized when I was older we were being offensive.

Was I a bigot or a sexist? No. But I was guilty of saying some inappropriate things. 

The summer camp incident and the ethnic jokes were all reflective of the times, and of my ignorance.

Which brings me to G.K. Chesterton.

There has been a recent flap involving individuals charging him again with anti-Semitism. The flap has led to one once stalwart Chestertonian rejecting Chesterton and his supporters/defenders, and to some former Chestertonians, like ex-lovers, gleefully supporting his criticisms.

I'm not here to chastise the fallen-away stalwart. He explains himself well, and he makes some good points. I hope with time there may be a reconciliation.

But it did lead me to reexamine my own unease about some of the things Chesterton has written. He did write some things about Jews that made me uncomfortable. He also bothered me when in multiple instances he referred to Blacks as n*****s.

I recognize, however, that I'm judging those comments and words through the lens of my own times and awareness. Consequently, I've always I considered such troubling comments and word choices as reflective of the times in which he was writing. I certainly have seen even worse comments from other writers of his time. I once wrote a clerihew about Rudyard Kilping, for example:

I don’t know if Rudyard Kipling
ever had problems with tippling.
The concerns that he’d face
involved imperialism and race.

Still, Chesterton did write a number of things that clearly are offensive. But I consider that he, like me, acted out of ignorance and reflected his times. 

That does not shield him from criticism or even exonerate him.

A sin committed out of ignorance is still a sin. The culpability is in part mitigated, but there is still culpability. 

Despite those troubling things he wrote, I remain convinced that Chesterton was NOT an anti-Semite. 

However, I also understand that what he wrote is offensive to many people, and has been an impediment to his being officially recognized as a saint. He may never be able to overcome that impediment.

 

That doesn't mean he's not a saint, just not an official one. 

But he is not an anti-Semite.

He's just a flawed human being, as am I.

Dostoyevsky Clerihew

Fyodor Dostoevsky

was plagued by vices that proved pesky.
So to pay his bills he took a successful gamble
creating characters who were prone to verbally ramble.

Charles and Camilla (clerihew)

The Brits now have their third Chuck,

and so I wish them lots of luck.

He finally achieved one of his two main goals,

the other, of course, being Mrs. Parker Bowles.

Una O'Connor Clerihew

As a character actress, Una O'Connor

deserved great praise and honor.
No matter who else was on the screen
with a look or her voice she could steal any scene.

Utopian and Dystopian Fiction

The September/October issue of StAR (Saint Austin Review) contains a short article by Manuel Alfonseca on two genres of fiction - "Utopias and Dystopias."

Alfonseca defines "utopias" as "descriptions of fictitious perfect societies," and he notes that the name comes from St. Thomas More's 1516 Utopia - a title that means "nowhere." He lists a number of works as utopian:

Republic - Plato
The City of the Sun (1602) -  Tomasso Campanella 

New Atlantis (1627) - Francis Bacon 

The Coming Race (1871) - Bulwer Lytton

Looking Backward (1888) - Edward Bellamy 

News from Nowhere (1890) - William Morris

Lost Horizon (1933) - James Hilton

Island (1962) - Aldous Huxley  

To be honest, I have only read two of these works - Utopia and Lost Horizon, I have heard of Look Backward, though I haven't read it. I haven't heard of any of the rest. But that's not surprising given that I am of a more dystopian bent.

Alfonseca actually only devotes the first paragraph to utopias; the bulk of the article deals with dystopias.   He defines "dystopias" as describing "imperfect societies that allow their author to criticize the society to which he belongs, or to predict future trends that are undesirable or frankly horrible." He notes that dystopias are more modern than utopias, and linked the proliferation of such works to a number of unsettling events in the 20th Century, specifically the global discontentment following the First World War, the communist revolution in Russia, and the Second World War. 

He lists a number of dystopias he has read, sharing observations about them:

Erewhon (1872) - Samuel Butler

Lord of the World (1907) - Robert Hugh benson

We (1921) - Yevgueni Zamyatin

Brave New World (1932) - Aldous Huxley

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) - George Orwell

One (or Escape to Nowhere) (1953 - David Karp

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) 0 Ray Bradbury

A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) - Walter M. miller Jr.

A Clockwork Orange (1962) - Anthony Burgess

Do androids dream of electric sheep? (1968) Philip K. Dick 

I am Margaret (2014) - Corinna Turner

I have read most of these dystopian works - though, I admit, I am Margaret is new to me. Indeed, in the lead up to the dystopian 2020 election I read or reread a number of them -  Lord of the World, Brave New World, Nineteen Eight-Four, Fahrenheit 451, and A Canticle for Leibowitz. 

They prepared me for what was to come!

I also agree with Alfonseca that the movie Blade Runner, based on Do androids dream of electric sheep?, is far better than the novel. 

There are many other dystopias that did not make his list in the article, which, as he noted, consisted of works that he had actually read. (The article is based on a chapter from a book he wrote, so many others may have been mentioned in the book.) The Hunger Games books by Collins, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton, and That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis come to mind. And I'm glad he left The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood off the list as it has been so twisted for political/social purposes these days.

Alfonseca observes that some people are speculating that we are getting closer to the worlds created by Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four - I would be among them. But he offers a more optimistic spin - one of which I'm sure Chesterton would approve.

"But I prefer to remember what Jesus Christ said about this: The gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church (Mt 16:18). Neither utopias nor dystopias will prevail, because man is free and can fall in sin and be redeemed."

Side note: If you have not discovered StAR yet, do check it out. It offers great, in-depth discussions of literature, art, the culture, etc., all from a classical and very Catholic perspective.

Rereading

"We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it's like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness." - C. S. Lewis 

The most recent issue of Gilbert (September/October 2022) contains an essay by Mark Johnson, "Old Friends Pay a Return Visit."

In the essay, Johnson notes his habit of reading classic novels every night. He has a fondness for 19th Century novels - a fondness I share.

But he ran into a problem. 

After years of reading, he had read them all, even down to the "fourth tier." With nothing new to read, he was faced with the terrible prospect of "mid-life acedia.".

Then one night he dipped into Middlemarch, a book he'd already read, to look a few of his favorite pages, and found himself caught up in the book again and completely reread it, enjoying it just as much - if not more - than the first time he read it. 

Eureka!

So now he is rereading some of his "old friends."

In rereading, he discovered he is better able to keep the characters or plot twists straight, and found he is able to relax more with the books. In the process, he also realized that, "Some aspects of a novel are literally impossible to recognize until a second read." He is able to make connections; he has a greater level of maturity and understanding as well. "I'm now aware that the art inside great literature unfolds and blooms most vividly upon a second or subsequent read."

This essay resonated with me. I am also in the process of rereading. I just include more than the 19th Century novels that I like.

Rereading is not a new thing for me. As a teacher, I had to reread some of the books I was teaching to keep them fresh. I don't know how many times I've reread To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and various of Shakespeare's plays. While I enjoyed the rereads, the purpose was professional.

Now I am rereading for pleasure books that I read 30-40-50 years ago. When I first read them, it was often because I had to read them for a class I was taking or teaching, or because I felt I was "supposed" to read them.  Like Johnson, I find myself now not only enjoying them, but also that I am better able to appreciate their artistry and insights into human nature and the spiritual.

I don't, however, limit myself to 19th Century novels, though they are certainly in the mix. In recent months, I've reread St. Augustine's Confessions, Brideshead Revisited, Chesterton's "biography" of St. Thomas Aquinas, The Screwtape Letters, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, to name a few. I'm currently rereading The Imitation of Christ, and The Brothers Karamazov. 

Unlike Johnson, there are books I haven't read before - as an English and History teacher, I was often reading books for class, and did not have time for as much pleasure reading as I desired, and before that when I was a reporter, I was constantly reading the books and essays and background information of the people whom I would interview or the topics I was covering. So now I mix in the books I always wanted to read. The Idiot, for example, or Oliver Twist. 

Now that I'm retired, many more first reads and rereads await.

Johnson's essay revealed to me a kindred spirit. And as I reread, I, like him, will "make sure I don't waste great wine."

How J.R.R. Tolkien Came to Write the Stories of 'The Rings of Power'

How J.R.R. Tolkien Came to Write the Stories of 'The Rings of Power': Haunted by the approach of another world war, the beloved fantasy author created a new story of Middle-earth that few people even knew about—until now

Hilaire Belloc Clerihew

 

Hilaire Belloc

walked off the end of a dock,

but being in the middle of a debate,

he failed to recognize his fate.

Alfred Hitchcock Clerihew

 

Alfred Hitchcock

developed a bad case of writer's block

despite his use of a bran muffin

as the MacGuffin.

The Ignatius "Lepanto"

 

In addition to the wonderful talks and getting to interact with fellow Chestertonians at the Rochester Chesterton Conference, one of the joys is perusing the books/magazines/etc. for sale. Dale Ahlquist and Joseph Pearce are almost always there hawking their books and materials.

Last year, Dale brought along the Ignatius edition of  "Lepanto" that he had edited, and that included explanatory notes and commentary..

Even though I had read the poem before, I bought the book. I finally got around to reading it this week. 

I can't say enough about the book. It brought the poem to life.

The wonderful notes explained references and context, and linked the poem to passages from Chesterton's other works. Brandon Rogers nicely explained the background for the poem, Colonel Melvin Kriesel offered a military analysis of the battle, William Cinfici describe the aftermath, and Dale provided some analysis of the poem. 

The edition also includes two of Chesterton's essays - "The True Romance" and "If Don John of Austria Had Married Mary Queen of Scots." Again, I had read these previously, but it was nice to link them with the poem.

I can't wait for this year's conference to see what delightful books they will be hawking this time around.

Crisis Magazine: Book It

 

Crisis Magazine - "A Voice for the Faithful Catholic Laity" - has been featuring a series of articles about some of our favorite authors.

The recent articles include:

The Man Who Was Thursday in a Nutshell

The Ball and the Cross in a Nutshell

The Four Men in a Nutshell

Out of the Silent Planet: A Guidebook Against the “New Normal”

Perelandra: Dreadful Good and Reasonable Evil 

The first three were written by Joseph Pearce. The latter two were written by Mary Cuff.

The magazine - to which one can subscribe online for free - has had any number of wonderful articles. Just consider some of these titles:

Was Shakespeare Catholic? (Pearce again!) (He also has a series of "Nutshell" articles about a variety of books) 

Real Marriages Are Founded on God, Not Government

Inviting Us to Participate in Sin - (on the synodal process!)

Weapon of Choice - (The Rosary)

She-Hulk Shows Why Feminism Is Not the Answer

I suspect if Chesterton were around today he would be a frequent contributor. 

The magazine is well worth checking out. 

 

The Patron Saint of Television!

 

There's a legend that St. Clare 

appeared at the '36 World Fair.

Some folks at the television display claimed they did see

on the screen the face of the fair saint from Assisi.

Chesterton on EWTN

 

EWTN rebroadcasts this wonderful show Monday mornings at 6:30. What a pleasant way to begin the week. 

Though it is odd seeing Dale without a beard!

The 100th anniversary of Chesterton’s conversion—and its ripple effect

 

Dale's article printed in Catholic World Report - 

Because GKC became Catholic, I became Catholic. And so have countless others.

When G.K. Chesterton was received into the Catholic Church one hundred years ago, on Sunday, July 30, 1922, it was big news. Except it wasn’t. It didn’t quite qualify as “news” because nobody knew about it. The two priests who received him into the Church – Fr. John O’Connor, his long-time friend who was also the inspiration for Chesterton’s immortal fictional detective Father Brown, and Dom Ignatius Rice, a Benedictine monk from Douai Abbey – vowed to say nothing about the ceremony. Not for any religious reasons. They just wanted to see how long it would take the press to find out.

It took three weeks.

And it was big news when it was finally reported. Except it wasn’t. At least for part of the reading public. Many of them thought Chesterton was already Catholic. After all, he’d been defending the Catholic Church for years, and taking the Catholic position at every turn, on every topic, and in every controversy. And he’d already written two dozen popular stories featuring the aforementioned Father Brown.

But there was also many Chesterton admirers and devotees who were genuinely surprised because they refused to believe he would ever do something so inconceivable as actually joining the Catholic Church. This group included both Catholics and non-Catholics, from his best friend and faith Papist Hilaire Belloc to his good friend and philosophical opponent George Bernard Shaw who had long made fun of what he called Chesterton’s “Roman Catholic hobby.” When Shaw heard the news, he fired off a letter to his debating partner saying, “Gilbert! This is going too far!” And Belloc, in genuine and pensive awe, wrote: “I never thought it was possible.”

The reaction within the Church of England, to which he belonged, also ran the gamut. When the local vicar in Beaconsfield heard the news, he said, “I’m glad Chesterton is going over to Rome. He was never a very good Anglican.”

On the other hand, an editorial in the Anglican weekly, The Church Times, said what was strange about Chesterton was not that he had become Catholic, but that he had remained so long in the Anglican communion. The growing liberalism within the Church of England was driving away the educated laity, and had never “attracted one educated man to the church” but rather “robbed that church of the genius of G.K. Chesterton.”

In contrast, the Catholic papers were ecstatic. THE TABLET’s headline crowed: “THE HOMECOMING OF MR. CHESTERTON.” It likened the conversion to that of John Henry Newman, and expressed happiness over having Chesterton’s happiness in the Church. “He will not let the devil have all the frolic.” But it also expressed what many felt: that Chesterton would not change.They wanted the same Chesterton they had already come to know; not a new one, just a Catholic one.

Chesterton called his conversion “the chief event” of his life. And we can say that in his writing and in his public persona, he didn’t change. In fact, there is not a discernible difference in his post-conversion writings from his pre-conversion writings. Except there is. He does in fact take on specific Protestant doctrines and is more specific in his rebuttals of them. He had always challenged Calvinism, but he zeroed in more on Luther. He had always demonstrated a mastery of Scripture but took apart the “Bible-worshippers” whom he found as small minded as the “Bible-bashers.”

He said there were ten thousand reasons, but they all amounted to the same reason. It was because “The Catholic Church is true.”

But when asked, these were some of the other reasons he gave.

The most striking answer: “To get rid of my sins.” Only the Catholic Church can do that.

Another answer was the sober realization that the Anglican Church wasn’t Catholic. “I always believed in the Catholic view of Christianity, at least I have believed it for twenty years. Unless the Church of England was a branch of the Catholic Church, I had no use for it. If it were a Protestant Church, I did not believe in it. In any case the question is whether the Church of England can claim to be in direct descent from the medieval Catholic Church …

“It appears to me quite clear that any church claiming to be an authoritative church must be quite definite when great questions of public morals are put. Can I go in for cannibalism or the murder of babies to reduce the population, or any other scientific and progressive reform? Any church with authority to teach must say whether it can be done. But the Protestant churches are in utter bewilderment on these moral questions.”

One of the moral questions was contraception. When Anglican bishops became champions of what Chesterton called “a low and poisonous trick, not far removed from infanticide,” he realized they were taking a position that was essentially heathenism. They were speaking with no unity, no authority, and could not denounce open immorality. He wanted to be part of the Church Militant. As he explained to his mother, he was joining “the one fighting form of Christianity.”


He was accused – and dismissed – as having a romantic attachment to a love of ritual and the aesthetics of the high Middle Ages with its Gothic Cathedrals reaching towards heaven.

But in a letter to a man named Bertram Hyde, who had raised these very concerns and asked him truly why he became Catholic, Chesterton responded: “I ought to say first that, saving the grace of God, my own conversion to Catholicism was entirely rational; and certainly not at all ritualistic. I was received in a tin shed at the back of a railway hotel. I accepted it because it did afford conviction to my analytical mind. But people can see the ritual and are seldom allowed to hear of the philosophy. About ritual itself I think the truest thing was said by Yeats the poet, certainly not a Catholic or even a Christian; that ceremony goes with innocence. Children are not ashamed of dressing-up, nor great poets at great periods, as when Petrarch wore the laurel. Our world does feel something of what Wells says, because our world is as nervous and irritable as Wells himself. But I think the children and the poets are more permanent.”

Three years later Bertram Hyde was received into the Catholic Church.

Which brings us to the ripple effect of Chesterton’s conversion. G.K. Chesterton might be one of the greatest makers of Catholic converts of the last century, and the ripples continue to be felt.

Here is just one ripple. Because GKC became Catholic, I became Catholic. Here’s another ripple.

Because I read Chesterton and became Catholic, I did a television show about Chesterton on EWTN. And because lots of people watched that show, it helped lead to a revival of interest in Chesterton. And also, many people who watched that show became Catholic, or became more Catholic.

But here’s another ripple. Because I became Catholic, my wife became Catholic, too, that is, she returned to the Catholic Church in which she had been baptized and confirmed, but it was a faith she had never really lived, until we both embraced it. We had the great pleasure and blessing of getting married again, by having our marriage validated by a priest. And because we became Catholic, for some reason we had four more children. And because we had those children, we eventually started the first Chesterton Academy. And because we started the first Chesterton Academy, there are now almost 50 other Chesterton Academies in five countries, with more schools in the works. These schools have led to young men becoming priests and young couples getting married in the Catholic Church, and revival of Catholic classical education across the country and across the world.

(Editor’s note: This essay was first posted on July 19, 2022.)

Jill Biden

 

Jill Biden
went for a ride in
a San Antonio cab and asked, "What's the best place to go
to get a good breakfast taco?"

C.S. Lewis Quotations

G.K. Chesterton is one of the most quotable figures of modern times.

One of the men influenced by him, C.S. Lewis, is also eminently quoatble. And, in keeping with that Chesterton influence, some of his quotations sound as if they could have been said by GKC.

“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.”

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

Here’s a few more from Lewis.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

“I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”

“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning...”

“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”

“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
     - The Magician's Nephew

“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. ”

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
     - Mere Christianity

“She's the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression.”
     - The Screwtape Letters

“Nothing you have not given away will ever really be yours.”
     - Mere Christianity

“Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.”

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.”

“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”
     - Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

“The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go God's love for us does not.”

Amos

 

The prophet Amos
became justly famous
not for his cookie baking skill,
but for proclaiming God's will.

What's Wrong with the World

 

Chesterton Is Right About What’s Wrong With the World

BOOK PICK: New edition of 1910 classic packs relevance today.

‘What’s Wrong With the World’ was written more than 100 years ago. (photo: Sophia Institute Press)

K.V. Turley BooksJune 14, 2022

Sophia Institute Press has just republished a book with a title that is as perennial as it is thought-provoking: What’s Wrong With the World by G.K. Chesterton. 

Essentially a book of political philosophy, Chesterton lampoons, with forensic wit, what were then faddish ideas in Edwardian Britain. His four targets are: large corporations, even bigger governments, feminism and education. These and the then thinking underpinning them are the public “wrongs” he identifies, alongside an overarching one, namely, man’s fallen human nature. 

First published in 1910, one may well ask: What does What’s Wrong With the World have to say to today’s world? 

Depressingly, the same wrongs are with us still, if receiving fresh expression in the 21st century. Helpfully, Chesterton not only identifies “what’s wrong” with the world but also points out that what people, often erroneously, think is wrong, and then wherein lies the cure of the world’s ills. ...

You can read the rest of this fine review/essay from the National Catholic Register here - https://www.ncregister.com/features/chesterton-is-right-about-what-s-wrong-with-the-world