Join us!
Join Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski, hosts of the UncommonSense Podcast, and Susan Sucher, our Local Societies Coordinator, and other special guests as we read our way through the exciting new Word on Fire edition of Chesterton’s masterpiece, The Everlasting Man, annotated and with commentary by our own Dale Ahlquist.
This weekly conversation begins Wednesday, May 1st at 7PM CST/8PM EST, and continues throughout the summer as we take a deep dive into this classic at a manageable pace. Live broadcasts mean that your questions and comments can be addressed in real time, as you participate through YouTube chat!
Sign up below to receive notices about our live broadcast, and links to recordings. Get a copy of the book at the link below. Check out our schedule to plan out your reading. Most of all – join our society as we read this great classic, and grow ever closer to The Everlasting Man, Jesus Christ.
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Schedule
Meetings will take place on Wednesday evenings, 8 PM EST / 7 PM CST. Click here to add the schedule to your calendar.
May 2024
May 1, 2024 – Book Club Kickoff
Join Dale Ahquist and our Book Club Team for a kickoff meeting introducing the plan for reading and the background behind the exciting new edition of Chesterton’s classic work from Word on Fire.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘Editor’s Introduction,’ pp. xi-xix.
May 8, 2024 – “When the world goes wrong, it proves rather that the Church is right.”
Joe Grabowski, Grettelyn Darkey, and Susan Sucher will lead a discussion on the thesis and scope of The Everlasting Man.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘Prefatory Note’ and ‘Introduction’ pp. 3-28.
May 15, 2024 – “Art is the signature of man.”
Susan Sucher and Michael Creavey lead a conversation about the paradoxical creature called man and his unique traits.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘The Man in the Cave,’ (Chapter 1) pp. 31-59.
May 22, 2024 – “Sometimes the professor with his bone becomes almost as dangerous as a dog with his bone.“
Grettelyn Darkey and Susan Sucher lead a conversation about what modern science gets wrong about ancient man.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘Professors and Prehistoric Men,’ (Chapter 2) pp. 60-86.
May 29, 2024 – “The curtain rises upon the play already in progress.“
Nancy Carpentier Brown and Noel Culbertson join us to chat about the “true paradox that there was history before history.”
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘The Antiquity of Civilisation,’ (Chapter 3) pp. 87-128.
June 2024
June 5, 2024 – “The most ignorant of humanity know by the very look of earth that they have forgotten heaven.“
Charlie Reese and Andy Whiskeyman help lead a discussion about religion natural, supernatural, and unnatural.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘God and Comparative Religion,’ (Chapter 4) pp. 129-162.
June 12, 2024 – “The truth is that the Church was actually the first thing that ever tried to combine reason and religion.“
Join Alan Cornett and Tom Ruby as we discuss the soul of myth.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘Man and Mythologies,’ (Chapter 5) pp. 163-188.
June 26, 2024 – “Nature is really looking for something; Nature is always looking for the supernatural.“
Jeff Miller will join us as we chat about the breaking out of the Cross from the circle of paganism.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘The Demons and the Philosophers,’ (Chapter 6) pp. 189-224.
June 28, 2024 – BONUS EPISODE
Join us to speak with Nancy Brown about the marriage of G.K. and Frances Chesterton on Frances’s birthday!
JULY 2024
July 3, 2024 – Bye-week
We will continue the book club next week. Enjoy the 4th of July!
July 10, 2024 – “Carthage must be destroyed.“
Marie Bates and Grace Krause join the conversation as we see how the real destroyer of Carthage was… Carthage.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘The War of the Gods and Demons,’ (Chapter 7) pp. 225-250.
July 17, 2024 – “Men not only ceased to believe in the gods, but they realised that they had never believed in them.“
Halfway through the book, we arrive at… the end of the world?! Yes, indeed; but far from the end of our story.
Reading: The Everlasting Man, ‘The End of the World,’ (Chapter 8) pp. 251-276.
July 25-27, 2024 – 43rd Annual Chesterton Conference
Join us in person or online for the annual Chesterton conference! We will continue the book club beginning with Part Two: On the Man Called Christ, beginning on August 7, 2024. Mark your calendar and join us for the weeks ahead!
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2024 - SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
Check back soon for more detail!
August 7, 2024: Introduction to Part Two
August 14, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 1 – “The God in the Cave”
August 21, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 2 – “The Riddles of the Gospel”
August 28, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 3 – “The Strangest Story in the World”
September 4, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 4 – “The Witness of the Heretics”
September 11, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 5 – “The Escape from Paganism”
September 18, 2024: Part Two, Chapter 6 – “The Five Deaths of the Faith”
September 25, 2024: Conclusion
The hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle. Upon this paradox, we might almost say upon this jest, all the literature of our faith is founded.