August Meeting Information

Thank you to Jim Carrico for leading our July meeting. We are currently working our way through GKC's classic, The Everlasting Man. Please join us for our August meeting, which will be Wednesday, August 5 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We will discuss four chapters: Part One, chapters 7-8 and Part Two, chapters 1-2.

July Meeting Information

This summer we are reading The Everlasting Man. At our June meeting, we got off to a great start discussing evolution, the "missing link", the lack of Gothic and Rococco bird's nest styles, etc. with the assistance of our handy study guide (thanks to Fr. Fessio's class, Revelation and Christology).

Please join us Wednesday, July 1 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno as we continue our romp through The Everlasting Man. We will read and discuss Chapters 4 through 8 of Part One. The meeting will be ably led by Jim Carrico, who was Shanghai-volunteered into said role and accepted with all due grace and aplomb.

See you then!

June Meeting Information

Please join us for our next meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3 at our usual location, Walden's Coffeehouse on Mayberry/W. McCarran in Reno. We will be discussing GKC's excellent book, The Everlasting Man, Introduction and Part I, chapters 1 through 4 inclusive. We will continue reading and discussing this book throughout the summer.

The Everlasting Man is one of GKC's best and most important books. It is his inimitable response to HG Wells's atheistic Outline of History. GKC takes on world history and religion--as only GKC can do--and shows how Jesus is the lynchpin on which human history turns. This is the book that caused the young atheist CS Lewis to seriously falter and to reconsider Christianity. Nonetheless, atheists and skeptics are welcome to come. No need to believe in Jesus to benefit from this book or to enjoy the robust discussion. :-)

Also, I will make available to anyone who wants it a copy of the study sheet for this book that Fr. Fessio gave to his Revelation and Christology class at USF.

Hope to see y'all there!

May Meeting Information

Thank you to all our members who attended our April meeting - we had several new members join us for a robust discussion regarding Chesterton and the Jews.

Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 6 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse. The McNeils will lead our discussion of GKC's biography of St Thomas Aquinas. Etienne Gilson, the chief scholar of Aquinas in the 20th century, said of this book: "I consider it as being without possible comparison the best book ever written on St. Thomas. Nothing short of genius can account for such an achievement.... Chesterton was one of the deepest thinkers who ever existed; he was deep because he was right; and he could not help being right; but he could not either help being modest and charitable, so he left it to those who could understand him to know that he was right, and deep." Howz that for kudos? But don't take Etienne's word for it; read it yourself and come to discuss GKC's spin on the Angelic Doctor!

Please note that if the weather is nice, and other patrons aren't hogging it, we may meet out on the back patio of Walden's.

April Meeting Information

Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 1 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse, corner of Mayberry and McCarran in Reno. Our topic is Chesterton and the Jews. The readings are from Gilbert Magazine and you may obtain a copy by e-mailing Sharon Parker at dolcevita30@yahoo.com or by calling Sharon at 329-4523. Our discussion will be focused on a short composite essay by Chesterton responding to allegations of his anti-semitism. We will also take a look at a longer essay by Dale Ahlquist from the same issue of Gilbert Magazine examining the basis of the charges of anti-semitism and defending GKC. Is he successful? You be the judge. Come prepared for lively discussion!

March Meeting Information

Please join us for our next meeting on Wednesday, March 4 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden’s Coffeehouse, 3940 Mayberry Drive, Reno (corner of Mayberry and McCarran). We will discuss GKC’s short novel, Napoleon of Notting Hill, a fun and whimsical work which inspired the Irish independence movement. If you enjoyed our November discussion of Distributism, you’ll love this novel in which one man takes on the world to defend his own London neighborhood. Come and discuss how and why you should defend your own ’hood against the Man!

February Meeting Information

Our February meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse.

Please join us to discuss two Father Brown mystery stories from the book The Innocence of Father Brown: "The Sign of the Broken Sword" and "The Queer Feet". Both are easily available on the internet, or you can purchase the annotated volume from the American Chesterton Society.

We left off our January meeting with one member opining that following the ten commandments would lead to prosperity, a sort of Calvinist idea with which GKC would strongly disagree. In "The Queer Feet", Father Brown solves a crime committed by the famous Flambeau against the Twelve True Fishermen, an exclusive dining club of prosperous gentlemen. We will discuss, among other things, Father Brown/GKC's piercing commentary on the tenuous relationship between repentence and riches!

And in "The Sign of the Broken Sword", again a seemingly successful and even heroic general is revealed to be something other than his reputation would suggest. Where does a wise man hide a leaf? asks the priest detective. You'll find out, as Father Brown solves a riddle of history rather than a crime freshly committed. Note that in between The Queer Feet and this tale, Flambeau repents of his life of crime and becomes a detective; hence in this story, Father Brown and Flambeau are friends.

We will discuss the above selections in light of a brief essay by GKC entitled "How To Write a Detective Story," in which GKC sets forth some of his ideas on writing detective fiction, an endeavor at which he confesses up front to have failed at a good many times. You be the judge! See if our two selections follow his own criteria. The essay is available at the American Chesterton Society's web site.