Dale Ahlquist on G. K. Chesterton

Nov 14, 2024

52:03

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A surprising number of Catholic conversions in the last hundred years begin with one man: G. K. Chesterton. A modern Catholic favorite, Chesterton looms large in subjects as diverse as theology, satire, marginalia, philosophy, politics, and mystery fiction.

Our guest today is Dale Ahlquist, founder and president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. His own journey of conversion started with Chesterton's The Everlasting Man. In our conversation, we visit many of Chesterton's ideas, concluding with the much misunderstood "distributism"—a Chestertonian practical philosophy and the subject of Ahlquist's co-edited book of essays titled Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching.

Chapters:

1:53 Conversion by way of Chesterton

6:17 Chesterton: a "complete thinker"

8:16 Reading recommendations

12:05 The opening of Everlasting Man

13:56 The ending of Man Who Was Thursday

17:16 Fairy tales and fundamental truths

19:18 "The twitch upon the thread"

22:27 Defining distributism, or localism

30:13 Localism for D.C. (sub)urbanites

33:44 Founding schools: localism in action

39:11 Family enterprises