Dale Ahlquist – Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton
The Apostolate of Common Sense

Dale Ahlquist

One of the most respected G.K. Chesterton scholars in the world, Dale Ahlquist is President of the American Chesterton Society, and publisher of its flagship publication, GILBERT. Dale is also the creator and host of the popular EWTN series The Apostle of Common Sense, and he is the author of three books on Chesterton including G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton and The Complete Thinker. His books deliver Chestertonian perspectives on such topics as faith, education, love, and marriage, and unpack the wisdom of Chesterton to explain why modern man has lost his ability to think clearly. He has also edited eight books of Chesterton’s writings.

Lecture 125: There

December 5, 2018

Introductions to Books About Places

Lecture 118: Tyranny

December 5, 2018

Essays from The Daily News, October, 1910 – December, 1911 

Lecture 110: Same New

December 6, 2018

Essays from The Illustrated London News, 1932-1934

Lecture 102: Mr. Hope

December 6, 2018

A Collection of Chesterton’s Short Stories and More

Lecture 97: Godless

December 6, 2018

Essays from The Illustrated London News, 1923-1925

Woman Who Was Chesterton

September 30, 2015

[mp_row] [mp_span col=”8″] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_heading margin=”none,none,none,none”] The life of Frances Chesterton, wife of English author G.K. Chesterton. [/mp_heading] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_code margin=”15,none,none,none”] In The Woman Who Was Chesterton, Nancy Carpentier Brown combs through the fascinating life of Frances Chesterton, wife of the famous English author G.K. Chesterton. The first biography of …

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Meet the Staff

September 5, 2018

Meet the Staff Dale Ahlquist | President A renowned G.K. Chesterton scholar and speaker, Dale Ahlquist is the host of EWTN’s The Apostle of Common Sense. He is the author of G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton, The Complete Thinker, and All Roads: Roamin’ Catholic Apologetics. Dale is a regular columnist …

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The Return of Father Brown

November 3, 2014

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The Hound of Distributism

September 12, 2015

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Join

December 14, 2015

The American Chesterton Society (ACS) works tirelessly to promote the writings and ideas of G.K. Chesterton. We have operated on the simple principle that exposing Chesterton to as many people as possible in as many ways as possible will contribute to a renewal of culture.

ACS Books

September 12, 2015

[mp_row] [mp_span col=”12″] [mp_heading margin=”none,none,none,none”] ACS BOOKS [/mp_heading] [/mp_span] [/mp_row] [mp_row] [mp_span col=”12″] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″ classes=” motopress-space”] [mp_space margin=”none,none,none,none”] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”6″] [mp_text margin=”none,none,none,none”] ACS Books is the publishing division of The American Chesterton Society. Our objective is to print books grounded in the tradition of the English writer, G.K. Chesterton with a broad scope covering …

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The Catechism of Hockey

September 12, 2015

[mp_row] [mp_span col=”8″] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_heading margin=”none,none,none,none”] The Catechism of Hockey [/mp_heading] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_code margin=”15,none,none,none”] Why does hockey have so many rules? Do we still need to have penalty boxes? Can’t we get rid of offside? And why is practice so important? What’s the big deal with the Commissioner? And …

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All Roads

January 14, 2016

[mp_row] [mp_span col=”4″] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_code margin=”none,none,20,none”] [add_to_cart id=”13021″] [/mp_code] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_heading margin=”none,none,none,none”] About the Author [/mp_heading] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_code margin=”10,none,none,none”]           Dale Ahlquist is president of the American Chesterton Society, creator and host of the popular EWTN series, The Apostle of Common Sense and …

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Jousting with the Devil

September 12, 2015

[mp_row] [mp_span col=”9″] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_heading margin=”none,none,none,none”] G.K. Chesterton believed in the Devil before he believed in God. [/mp_heading] [/mp_span_inner] [/mp_row_inner] [mp_row_inner] [mp_span_inner col=”12″] [mp_code margin=”15,none,none,none”] In this follow-up to his earlier book The Tumbler of God: Chesterton as Mystic, Fr. Robert Wild explores G.K. Chesterton’s fascinating duel with Satan, both on paper and in his …

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Was G.K. Chesterton Anti-Semitic?

January 31, 2019

QUESTION: Is there any truth to the accusation that G.K. Chesterton was anti-Semitic? ANSWER: For those of us who love Chesterton, we are always distressed to see him falsely accused of something vile. But we have gotten a little tired of the charge of anti-Semitism. He has been absolved of that charge too many times for …

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Detective Stories

December 1, 2018

It strikes some readers as strange that Chesterton, a highly respected literary critic, could take seriously the lowly detective story. But he did take it seriously.

Pacifism

December 1, 2018

“The horror of war,” Chesterton wrote, “is the sentiment of a Christian and even of a saint.”

Pride

December 1, 2018

Chesterton wrote that if he had just one sermon to preach, it would be a sermon against the sin of pride.

Career Women

December 1, 2018

It was quite clear to Chesterton that having a job might make a woman independent of husbands and families, but it also made them dependent on employers, dependent on wage-earning, and servants to a business as most men already were.

Hudge and Gudge

December 1, 2018

Hudge and Gudge, Big Government and Big Business (and sometimes Sludge–Big Science) overstep their bounds and interfere with the average family, whom Chesterton calls the Jones family.

Crime and Punishment

December 1, 2018

If heredity and environment account for all crimes, Chesterton argued, then law enforcement would become focused on certain types of people (perhaps the poor) and in certain neighborhoods (perhaps the slums). Chesterton was opposed to such views.

The Common Man

December 1, 2018

Chesterton called plain folks “the million masks of God” and praised them for their common sense, common decency, and their humble institutions: hearth and home, the family, the church, and the pub.

The Medical Mistake

December 1, 2018

Each politician has a portfolio of solutions to major problems as if he were a physician with a black bag full of pills.

Scientism

December 1, 2018

If there is a spiritual presence in the material world, physical science will not discover it; and if we discover it, physical science will have no idea of what it means.

Scientific Determinism

December 1, 2018

Chesterton argues against the theory of scientific determinism: that a man’s life is determined for him by factors beyond his control, be they the environment, heredity, or a host of other external forces that play upon him.

Puritanism

December 1, 2018

Puritans argue against the goodness of creation, finding the source of evil in material things of pleasure (as tobacco, alcohol, art, and so on) rather than in the disordered human will to misuse the good things nature affords us.

The Family

December 1, 2018

Liberty, Chesterton argued, is merely the right to choose between one set of limitations and another. It is limitations, he wrote, that create “all the poetry and variety of life.”

The Deadly Sins

December 1, 2018

Unlike the pleasure-seeking hedonists, Chesterton believed in the reality of sin. Unlike the prohibition-minded Puritans, he believed in enjoying God’s pleasures to the full.

The Cult of Success

December 1, 2018

Chesterton urges people to judge the world and themselves not by the way things are, but by the way they ought to be.

Consumerism

December 1, 2018

Chesterton reminds us that the end purpose of work is a product, not a wage, and that all the exchanges in which people exploit one another, both socially and financially, are also opportunities for people to dignify one another.

Lecture 63: Chaucer

October 30, 2018

Literary Criticism About One of the Giants of English Literature

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