The Nevada Chesterton Society

Start the New Year with C.S. Lewis

2012-01-03T17:11:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! Our next Chesterton meeting is Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse. We will continue our discussion of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, covering Part III re Christian Morality.

Our February meeting will be Wednesday, February 1, same Bat Time, same Bat Location. We will finish our discussion of Mere Christianity at that meeting.

All are welcome!

September Meeting Information

2011-09-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

Our September meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffee house, corner of West McCarran and Mayberry in the Biggest Little City in the World. Join us to conclude our discussion of What's Wrong With the World. We will discuss Part V, The Home of Man. Newcomers welcome!

July Meeting Information

2011-06-16T17:53:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 6 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We are working our way through What's Wrong With the World? We will discuss
Part III (Woman), chapters 9 through 12, and Part IV (Education), chapters 1 through 10. This is pages 114-161 in the Ignatius Press edition of the book. If the weather is nice, we may sit out on the back porch.

June 2011 Meeting Information

2011-05-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, June 1 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We will continue our discussion of GKC's class work on social issues, What's Wrong with the World? We will discuss Part II re Imperialism (all chapters) and Part III, chapters 1-8 re Feminism.

Also, please contact yours truly at the e-mail address above if you would like a copy of a short study guide that comes from the Sheed & Ward edition of What's Wrong, published in the 1940's.

What's Wrong With the World?

2011-04-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Please join us for our next adventure, which will be tackling What's Wrong With the World? We will discuss Part One - The Homelessness of Man [pages 15-61 in the Ignatius Press version] at our May meeting on Wednesday, May 4 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in the Biggest Little City in the World.

GK notes in the dedication that he originally called this book "What is Wrong", which resulted in a number of comical incidents such as "many a mild lady" opening her eyes when GK remarked casually "I have been doing 'What is Wrong' all morning." :-) Anyway, this is GK's masterpiece on social and moral issues. He takes on everything from imperialism to feminism to education and beyond, in his usual merry and insightful style.

We will work our way through the book in four sessions, maybe five, and finish in time to have our now-traditional Oktoberfest.

April Meeting Information: The ChesterBlogg

2011-04-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Our April meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 6 at Walden's Coffeehouse, 6:00 p.m. as always. We will discuss two short pieces relating to Gilbert and Frances Chesterton: a chapter from Joseph Pearce's biography of GKC and a letter that GKC wrote to Frances after their engagement. Contact yours truly for copies!

March Meeting Information

2011-02-15T12:34:00.001-08:00

Our March meeting will be on Wednesday, March 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse. We will be discussing the second half of Chesterton's novel, The Flying Inn. See you there!

February Meeting Information

2011-01-12T11:48:00.001-08:00

Hold on to your seats; in February and March we are reading The Flying Inn, a zany G.K.C. novel about a pub owner who takes his pub on the run from prohibitionists. Our February meeting will be on Wednesday, February 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We will discuss chapters 1 through 13 inclusive. Please join us and bring a friend!

Chesterton Talk at Novena for St. Thomas Aquinas

2010-12-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral in Reno is having a novena in preparation for the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. It will run every night from Jan. 20th up to the feast, which is the 28th. Each night there will be some combination of prayers, music and talks about St. Thomas. Several of our members have been invited to give brief talks (30 minutes). On Friday January 21, the talk will be Chestertonian: your fearless president will be speaking about GKC's biography of St. Thomas. The novena starts at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome to join us!

Start the New Year with the ChesterBelloc!

2010-12-30T08:22:00.001-08:00

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in the Biggest Little City in the World. Our topic is the "ChesterBelloc". I have culled two essays from a fabulous web site devoted to Chesterton and Belloc and other distributists--please check it out: http://distributist.blogspot.com/. The essays are On the Place of Gilbert Chesterton in English Letters and The Distributism of Hilaire Belloc. Both are also available from Yours Truly in a Word document. Hope to see you there!

December Meeting

2010-11-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

Our December meeting will be Wednesday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden’s Coffeehouse, corner of W. McCarran and Mayberry in Reno. We will read two essays by GKC from his book The Thing: Why I Am Catholic. The essays are “The Feasts and the Ascetic” and “The Spirit of Christmas”. If for some strange reason you do not own or wish to own a copy of this book, the essays can be found online or you can contact Madame Prez for a Word copy. Happy Thanksgiving and hope to see you soon!

November Meeting Information

2010-10-22T12:51:00.001-07:00

The Oktoberfest was a fabulous success! Now, onward to November: our meeting will be on Wednesday, November 3 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We will read An Introduction to the Book of Job, available on line at http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/job.html. Please contact your fearless President for more details.

Oktoberfest!

2010-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

October is a fine time for a party! Our second annual Oktoberfest and Clerihew contest will be October 16, 2010 from 6:00 to 9:00 at the home of Yours Truly. I will provide bratwurst & buns and my famous pumpkin cake. You will provide drinks and appropriate side dishes. Please contact me if you plan to attend.

September Meeting Information

2010-08-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who attended the August meeting for a glorious hour and a half of beer quaffing and discussion of Father Brown. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, September 1 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffee house in the Biggest Little City in the World. We will discuss two essays, one by Wilfred Sheed entitled "On Chesterton", taken from G.K. Chesterton, A Half Century of Views, and one by Richard Purtill entitled "Chesterton, the Wards, the Sheeds, and the Catholic Revival" included in the new edition of Reason to Believe. Both are available from your fearless president in pdf or photocopy format, if for some reason you are not on our e-mail list.

August Meeting Information

2010-07-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Our August meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 4th, at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's. We will be discussing two Fr. Brown stories, "The Hammer of God" and "The Flying Stars". Both are included in the book The Innocence of Father Brown. They are also available on the internet. See, e.g., http://chesterton.thefreelibrary.com/The-Innocence-Of-Father-Brown/4-1 and http://chesterton.thefreelibrary.com/The-Innocence-Of-Father-Brown/9-1.

Also, August marks the end of our scheduled syllabus, which means your fearless President is now soliciting input for next year's syllabus (we run Sept. through Aug.). Please let me know if there is a Chesterton (or Chestertonian) book, poem, essay, or even just a topic you'd like to read in the coming year. See you in August!

Nevada Chestertonians Get Published in Gilbert Magazine!

2010-06-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all our members whose Clerihews were published in the most recent edition of Gilbert Magazine!

July Meeting Information

2010-06-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

Our July meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 7th at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse, corner of Mayberry and W. McCarran. We will discuss chapters 13 through 20 of GKC's masterpiece, Heretics.

Please join us for beer, coffee, food, fellowship and discussion of one of the 20th century's greatest authors!

June Meeting Information: Heretics Piled Higher and Higher!

2010-05-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Our June meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse. We will continue our discussion of Heretics. Jim Carrico will lead our discussion and we plan to plough through chapters 6 through 12. Join us to discuss such delectable topics as Omar and the Vine and the pride of George Moore. If the weather is nice, we may meet outside on the back porch.

May Meeting Information: More Heretics

2010-04-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

Our May meeting will be on Wednesday May 5 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno. We will continue our discussion of GKC's classic work, Heretics. Since we only covered the first three chapters in our April meeting, we will discuss chapters 4-10. Come join the fun!

April Meeting Information

2010-03-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

We had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day Party, thanks to hosts Jim and Karen Carrico! Thanks also to everyone who contributed GKC quotes, original limericks, songs, stories, jokes, food and libations. Erin Go Braugh!!

Our next two meetings are devoted to GKC's classic work, Heretics. Our April meeting will be April 7 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse, corner of W. McCarran and Mayberry in Reno. We will discuss chapters 1-10 of Heretics. Please join us!

St. Patrick's Day Party!

2010-02-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

Our March meeting will be a party in honor of Sts. Patrick and Gilbert* on March 17, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at the home of our President of Vice, Mr. Jim Carrico. Jim will provide corned beef and cabbage and the rest of us will provide side dishes, drinks and desserts. If you wish to attend please contact Sharon Parker at 775-688-3021 for further details.

The theme of the party, besides St. Paddy, will be The Quotable Chesterton. Please pick one of your favorite quotes and be prepared to share it with the group. If you are feeling daring, you may also share an original limerick. Joe Bell claims they are supposed to be racy.

Erin Go Braugh!

*Sure, he's not canonized yet, but does anyone doubt he's in heaven?

February Meeting Information

2010-01-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse, corner of E. McCarran and Mayberry Streets in Reno. We are reading a short book by C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man. Lewis reported in his autobiography Surprised by Joy that G.K. Chesterton had influenced his conversion to Christianity. He read GKC's Everlasting Man and wrote in reference to it, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere -- 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." Come join us to discuss a very important work by one of the most influential Christian apologists of the 20th century...second to GKC, of course.

All are welcome!

Start the New Year with G.K. Chesterton!

2009-12-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

Our January meeting will be Wednesday, January 6 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse, corner of Mayberry and W. McCarran, in the Biggest Little City in the World.

We will discuss three very short essays taken from Brave New Family on the topic of "eugenics and other evils." The essays are "The Fallacy of Eugenics", "Three Foes of the Family" and "Social Reform vs. Birth Control." The latter two are available on the internet, but all three are available from your fearless president.

Come prepared for a spirited discussion/debate on a controversial topic! All viewpoints welcome if you can defend 'em with good humour and rationale arguments.

December Meeting Information

2009-11-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who attended our November meeting. Thirteen Chestertonians gathered to discuss selected essays from Tremendous Trifles.

Our December meeting will be Wednesday, December 2 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse in Reno, corner of W. McCarran and Mayberry Drive. We will be discussing Chesterton on fairy tales. The readings are "The Ethics of Elfland", which is Chapter 4 of GKC's masterpiece, Orthodoxy. If for some incomprehensible reason you do not own Orthodoxy, you can find it on line, frexample at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/orthodoxy.vii.html

We will also discuss JRR Tolkien's classic essay on fairy stories. You can find that on line at the following link: http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2004/fairystories-tolkien.pdf. It is also available in the book The Tolkien Reader.

Anyone interested in G.K. Chesterton is welcome to join us!

November Meeting Information

2009-10-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Our Oktoberfest and Clerihew contest was a smashing success! Thank you to everyone who submitted Clerihews and who brought food and libations for our party. A great time was had by all. We've already had offers to host next year's party.

Our November meeting is right around the corner. Please join us on Wednesday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse for a lively discussion of three very short essays by GKC. All three are taken from the book Tremendous Trifles. The essays are On Lying in Bed, What I Found in My Pocket, and A Piece of Chalk.

These are easily available on the internet, or you can buy the book from the American Chesterton Society, or you can contact your fearless President for a Word document with all three essays.

Oktoberfest!

2009-09-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

Our October meeting will be an Oktoberfest party on Saturday, October 10. We will discuss a few short readings from GKC (two essays from Alarms & Discursions: Cheese and The Appetite of Earth, plus a short poem from The Flying Inn), and a short essay on Beer, Friendship and Character. Readings are available in pdf and Word formats from the President. Please contact Sharon at dolcevita30@yahoo.com or at 688-3021 for full details.

September Meeting Information

2009-08-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Our September meeting will be Wednesday, September 2nd at 6:00 p.m. at Walden's Coffeehouse (Mayberry/McCarran). We have met on the back porch the last two meetings, so come on out if you don't see us inside. We will finish our discussion of GKC's masterpiece, The Everlasting Man. That means you should read chapters 3-6 of Part II (plus conclusion and appendices, of course).

Our October meeting will be an Oktoberfest party at the home of the President. For more information, please contact me at the e-mail posted above. Otherwise, information will be sent out to all members in September via e-mail.

August Meeting Information

2009-07-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T18:13:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

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.

January Meeting Information

2008-12-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who attended our December meeting, in which we discussed the secularization of Christmas, the relative merits of having a Merry Christmas versus just a happy Christmas, etc. “The word “merry” cannot be used of any people except people in a certain pacific temperature of high spirits”, sez our hero. Amen to that!

Our January meeting will be at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 7, 2008 at Walden’s Coffeehouse, 3940 Mayberry Drive, Reno (at the corner of Mayberry and McCarran). We will discuss The Man Who Was Thursday, one of GKC’s best and most exciting novels. Hope to see you there!

December Meeting Information

2008-11-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who attended our November meeting, which was a rousing success. One good soul took on the defense of Walmart against a crowd of distributists for an excellent discussion of the virtues and vices of the economy in which we live, move and earn our daily bread. Our special guest, Dale Ahlquist, was a great addition to the meeting.

Our December meeting will be at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at Walden’s Coffeehouse, 3940 Mayberry Drive, Reno (at the corner of Mayberry and McCarran). Please join us for some Christmas cheer (yes, at the beginning of Advent). We will discuss some short essays and poetry by GKC on the timely subject of Christmas, available in Part 8 of Brave New Family by GKC. Please contact Sharon M. Parker at dolcevita30@yahoo.com for a copy of the readings.

Our book for January is The Man Who Was Thursday, and it’s not too early to get started. If you do not have a copy, please consider ordering it from the American Chesterton Society, at http://chesterton.org/.

November Meeting Information:

2008-10-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

Please join the Nevada Chesterton Society and special guest Dale Ahlquist for our November meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at Walden’s Coffeehouse, 3940 Mayberry Drive, Reno (at the corner of Mayberry and McCarran).

We will discuss three short works: “The Bluff of the Big Shops” (a chapter of GKC’s Outline of Sanity), available at http://www.distributist.blogspot.com/2007/02/gk-speaks-bluff-of-big-shops.html, plus two introductory essays about Chesterton’s economics: “The Outline of Sanity” by Dale Ahlquist, available at http://www.distributist.blogspot.com and “GKC and Dorothy Day”, a June 2001 talk at the American Chesterton Society Conference, available at http://www.cjd.org/paper/roots/rchest.html.

Dale Ahlquist will also be speaking to the Catholic Business & Professional Group at 7:00 a.m. Thursday, November 13 at the Silver Legacy on Chesterton and Economics, Business and the Workplace. Please see http://catholicprofessionals.org/ for more information.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 1, 2008

2008-09-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting will be at 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 1st at Walden's Coffeehouse, 3940 Mayberry Drive, Reno, Nevada. Please join us for a lively discussion of Chesterton's Christian apologetics. We will quaff beer and discuss GKC's short essays "Why I Believe in Christianity" and "Why I Am a Catholic", both of which are available at www.chesterton.org under "The Theologian".

Next Nevada Chesterton Society Meeting: Who is this guy and why havn't I heard of him.

2008-06-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings new and old Chestertonians,

Basking in the afterglow of Mark's delightful presentation, two weeks ago, it's time we got acquainted or reacquainted with our patron G.K. Chesterton. To that end we are going to convene on Wednesday July 2nd at 6:00p at Waldens Coffee House. With the help of some of Waldens fine wines or ales... or coffee or tea, if you prefer, we should be able to jubilantly break open our theme for the evening, Who is this guy and why haven't I heard of him? At this meeting we will discuss a selection of some short writings by Chesterton and about Chesterton to get an idea of who this man was and what it was that he wrote about and thought about. The American Chesterton society has a wonderful site online at http://www.chesterton.org/ which, for this meeting, we will plumb to pull material from.

The Nevada Chesterton Society is kind of a book club. So the idea here is that you read the assigned material before hand, then if you are so inclined you render up all of the funny and insightful things that occur to you for everyone to laugh at think about and discuss. Our evenings are very informal, but will generally involve a lot of quotes, jokes, discussion, poetry reading and maybe even some impromptu acting if we have anyone that is so moved.

Our topic for the upcoming evening is Who is this guy and why haven't I heard of him? and Dale Ahlquist, president of The American Chesterton Society has written an excellent article, by that title, to answer that question. So that is the first piece I'm recommending to everyone.

One of the things Chesterton is still most remarked for is his quotability. There seems to be a string of endless epigrams on all kinds of subjects. Always humorous and insightful they are just the thing to spark a discussion. So the next thing for you to do is to checkout the quotes section of the website and pick out a few good zingers.

Being called to jury duty is sometimes not a particularly inspiring, happening. However to Chesterton it was a singularly farcical and provocative event. After reflecting upon the deprivation of his home of Battersea of all it's C's such as Chesterton and Chizzolpop by the hands of the alphabetic barristers, he settles down to this point about what a Jury is and why we should always keep it.

The trend of our epoch up to this time has been
consistently towards socialism and professionalism.
We tend to have trained soldiers because they fight
better, trained singers because they sing better,
trained dancers because they dance better, specially
instructed laughers because they laugh better, and
so on and so on.

But for more on that you'll have to read the essay. But it's fitting for us to switch from one democratic institution to another and the other is Beer! We are going to hop over to Chesterton's poetry and read The Rolling English Road. I should caution you that while Chesterton exalted wine and beer, this is not a hedonistic worship of drunkenness. Quite the opposite in fact. Don't be content to miss the point. Chesterton says "we should thank God for beer and Burgundy, by not drinking to much of them" And the last stanza of The Rolling English Road positively lifts the the poem into the transcendent. Perhaps a new attendee would volunteer to read this poem, or another, for us.

And to finish up what is the most natural subject after you have finished with your beer... Metaphysics. We are going to discuss a little piece Chesterton wrote upon the provocation of an aspiring enlightener of civilization, come to teach the European rabble how to live in peace like the Asiatic mystic. Chesterton, far from criticizing any intention so good as living in peace, found himself, however in a mood disposed to answer the gentlemen. I'm not sure if it was to the satisfaction of the aforementioned enlightener. I'd venture not, but I think it will certainly be to our satisfaction and rather nicely round off the evening.

In addition to this you may of course comment upon anything you like at this meeting that is Chesterton related.

I'd like to reiterate a my greeting to all new and old Nevada Chestertonians and say that I look forward to seeing all of you again on Wednesday July 2nd at 6:00p at Waldens Coffee house.

Your Servant,
Jim Carrico

101 Reasons not to be a Catholic?!

2008-03-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

"There are a million reasons not to be a Catholic and only one reason to be one."

It is a great pleasure to announce Mark Shea's upcoming presentation at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church on June 6th at 7:00p, following the first Friday Mass.

Mark Shea is the editor of Catholic Exchange and one of the directors of the Seattle Chesterton Society. You may have heard bits by him on KIHM every now and again. Anyways, he is going to give his excellent talk, titled "101 Reasons not to be a Catholic" which addresses many of the arguments against the church in a very unique, in a very Chestertonian fashion. He starts out humorously juxtaposing certain arguments against each other. For instance the argument that the church is patriarchal for having a male priesthood and the argument that it is idolatrous because it worships Mary. Or another example "we [Catholics] loathe sex while having thousands of children." He gives many many such examples, which keeps the audience rolling, but comes together to form the central point of his talk. It's a point Chesterton makes in Orthodoxy, which he quotes:

Suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men saidhe was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness,some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation (as has been already admitted) would be thathe might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape. Outrageously tall men mightfeel him to be short. Very short men might feel him to be tall. Old bucks who are growing stout might consider him insufficiently filled out;old beaux who were growing thin might feel that he expanded beyond thenarrow lines of elegance. Perhaps Swedes (who have pale hairlike tow) called him a dark man, while negroes considered himdistinctly blonde. Perhaps (in short) this extraordinary thingis really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the centre.

But I don't want to give too much away just now, but to encourage you all to set this date down in your calendar. I promise, you will love his presentation. And for those of you connected with other interested parties don't hesitate to invite whoever you wish.

27th Annual Chesterton Conference "The Orthodoxy Centennial"

2008-03-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone. The 27th annual Chesterton Conference is right around the conner and this year is the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the publication of GK's book Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy, has been described as one of the best works of Christian apologetics ever written and was an inspiration for the conversion of another eminent writer and Christian apologist, C.S. lewis. For more information go to http://www.chesterton.org/rediscover/conference.html

Also sign up with me here if you would like to travel as part of a group. Include your name, phone number, and email address.

Next Meeting 3/26/08 The Ball and the Cross

2008-03-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Our next meeting will be at 6:30p March 26^th to discuss chapters 4 through 8 of The Ball and The Cross. We will be having our meeting at The Life House. The Life House is located at 1050 Humboldt St. To get there take Plumas south from California St, turn right on to Walker and your next right onto Humboldt St.

The Ball and the Cross is a book about argument. It is so to speak an argument for argument. In any case I encourage you to read Dale's description of it at
http://www.chesterton.org/discover/lectures/15ballandcross.html
and if you don't have the book you can read it at
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/ball_and_cross.txt.

And remember to post your comments to this post after you've read.

Ch 5 OoO

2007-08-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

CH V The Flag of the world

1 The modern world has broken it self in two, optimists and pessimists.

2 The common explanation for these two thoughts are nonsense.

3 My explanation is "the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist,and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself"

4 But this is a deep mistake in this alternative. Man is not shopping for a house, he has a loyalty to this world long before he has any admiration.

5 And this loyalty is in fact the cause of progress and discovery in civilization, great cities are not loved because they are great, they grew great because they were loved.

6 "Granted that this primary devotion... is a source of creative energy" we can see clearly the deficiencies in the other modern strains of thought.

7 The problem with the sincere pessimist is "not that he chastises gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises--he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things."

8 The problem with the optimist is that he does not love the world but an idea or a feature of the world. He will not reform things, but will go against all reason to prove a notion of things that pleases him.

--There are two sins against hope, presumption and despair--

9 It is rational optimism, loving something for a reason that leads to stagnation) it is irrational optimism or true patriotism, loving something for being yours that leads to reform.

10 True patriotism, love is not blind, "love is bound and the more it is bound the less it is blind."

11 The rational mood of our time is to accept the world as a mix of good and evil "and I think [this mood] freezes our epoch."

12 "For our Titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the cold acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily hate and heartily love it."

13 A man must hate the world enough to want to change the world but love it enough to think it worth changing.

14 "Then I remembered that...Christianity was accused, at one and the same time, of being too optimistic about the universe and of being too pessimistic about the world.

15 "The more I thought about when and how Christianity had come into the world, the more I felt that it had actually come to answer this question" of how me may hate and love the world.

16 When Christianity came on the scene stoic idealism had shown the weakness of pessimism and Pantheism had shown the weakness of optimism.

17 The Stoics had given up on any god in the universe and only looked to the god with in.

18 The Pantheists declaring everything good fell in to an orgy of everything that was bad.

19 "The only people who really enjoyed this world were busy breaking it up; and the virtuous people did not care enough about them to knock them down."

20 In this dilemma (the same as ours) Christianity suddenly stepped in and offered a singular answer, which the world eventually accepted as THE answer.

21 According to Christianity the Origin and aim of everything was supremely good, but the drift of everything supremely evil.

22 And Christianity passed the dilemma. " this way at least one could be both happy and indignant without degrading one's self to be either a pessimist or an optimist. On this system one could fight all the forces of existence without deserting the flag of existence."

23 Having found The Christian Tradition to fit this whole in the world in this one large aspect i found other parts fitting or justifying all and more of the fancies and feeling mentioned in Ch 4.

24 Christianity entirely reversed the reason for optimism...But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do NOT fit in to the world.

Outline of Orthodoxy

2007-07-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Fellow Chestertonians,

As promised here is the first installment of the outline. It is often commented that Orthodoxy seems unstructured or without a thread of a continuous argument. The onlooker or a person first introduced to Orthodoxy always makes the comment that the books seem to be a perpetual tangent. One topic leads into another, but is not directly related to any central thesis. To anyone well acquainted with Chesterton this stings a little, because we know that there is an overarching Argument in the book despite our difficulties at proving it to the people we first introduce the book to. But these comments do illustrate something. Chesterton is a much larger thinker then most of us have ever been exposed to. "Everything means something" and it is the something that everything means that Chesterton is trying to demonstrate. In the whirlwind of everything that fly around us in Orthodoxy it is easy for us to lose sight of the purpose. Now nothing that Chesterton dedicates a page to can be summarized in a sentence. Chesterton may be expansive, but he has no wasted words. All of his illustrations and demonstrations shed more light on the subject, and the book would have been something less than it is if Chesterton had left anything out. The outline is not meant to be a cliff notes version of Orthodoxy, in fact the outline is not even meant to make any sense in reference to itself. Rather it is meant as a reminder to the person who has already read the book about what points were made and where they were made in the book. Thereby allowing the person to see two parts of the book together which they might not have seen a connection between. That is the hope and that is the first purpose of this outline. What follows is an inadequate outline of chapters 2 3 and 4. Sharon I'll post your material up when I get to those chapters and Carlos I'm going to post your comments in a separate post.

CH II The Maniac

1 The maniac effects me in the same way modern thinkers do.

2 Modern thought can be evaluated by whether or no they make a man go mad

3 Imagination does not cause insanity, reason does

4 The madman has lost everything except his reason

5 A mad mans arguement is complete in a purely rational way.

6 The madman explains a large number of things but not in a large way

7 The madman is without healthy complexity and healthy hessitation

8 Modern thinkers share with maniacs this expansive reason with a contracted common sense

9 Materialism has an insane simplicity, understanding everything and making everthing not worth understanding

10 Materialism lacks complexity like the madman

11 Materialism tends to destroy the materialists humanity like madness

12 The oposite argument that everything is a personal dream is equally complete in theory and equally crippling in practice

13 The materialist and (the illusionists?) insanity is proved by the maifest mistake of their entire lives.

14 It is reason without proper first principals that leads to madness

15 Mysticism is what keeps man sane. A man can understand everything with the help of what he does not understand.

16 Healthy men accept apparent contradiction and inscrutable truths.

CH III The Suicide of THought

1 Last chapter was not meant to attack reason it is my ultiamte purpose to defend it.

2 Religous authority was reared as a defense of the right of man to think.

3 Many modern thoughts have the effect of stopping thought, they are the only thoughts that should be stopped.

4 List of thought stopping thoughs

a Materialism makes thought mechanical and not very exciting

b (Illusionism?) Makes it such that there are no things to think about

c Evolutionary philosohpy destroys the notion of essential diffrences between things

d HG Wells opposite attack prevents the association of things

e Theory of progress (fundamental change in human ideals) makes constructive thought about past, present and future impossible.

f Pragmatism essentialy ignores the primary need for objective truth

5 A school of "artists" having seen the peril of reason have rejected reason as an authority and have declared that authority to reside soely in a mans will.

6 But just as complete free thought really destroys thought pure praise of vollition really paralizes the will

7 This has been a rough review of recent thought what follows is my view of life.

8 Moderns have torn the soul of Christ and are puzzeled by its fragments, there is a moral Unity and utility in this creed which we only see parts of.

CH IV The Ethics of Elfland

1 There are two principals of democracy

a That the common things to men are more important and more extrordinary than the peculair things in one man

b And that the political instinct is one of these common things

2 Tradition is democracy extended through time

3 I have always been on the side of hard-working people, on the side of democracy and traditions

4 I will list 3 or 4 ideas that I discovered that constitute my natural philosophy.

5 I shall demonstrate how these were first discovered by Christianity.

6 The things I believe most are fairytales. The first doctrine that arises from fairy tales is that the world does not explain itself.

a There are certain logical sequences that are necessary, that are law.

b To call something a law is to imply we have a synthesis of ideas that connects one thing with another.

c Mere repetitions such as are found in nature are not laws because we havn't this inner synthesis.

d There is a simple test, the test of the imagination. If observable sequences in nature have imaginable alternatives they can not be called laws.

8 Fairy tales have the capacity of awakening the original instinct of wonder at life. They demonstrate that life is magic not law.

10 The third doctrine is the doctrine of conditional joy.

a An incomprehensible happieness rest upon an incomprehensible condition

b To me this did not seem unjust. Its foolish to complain of not understanding the limits of the vision when one does not understand the vision.

11 Modern thought is upposed to fairytales on these two principals

a Modern thought supposes if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead.

b But this is not true, it is generaly the dieing or fatiguing of things that brings alteration.

c On the contrary I felt that the world and the repetion in the world meant something, and if it means something there must be someone to mean it.

d Modern thought is also opposed to the poetry of limits, it emphasizes the largeness of the cosmos so as to subjugate morality.

e But my feeling about the cosmos was quite the reveres that it was something small and precious such as something pulled from a sinking ship.

12 The summation of these points restated is:

first, that this world does not
explain itself...Second, I came to feel as if
magic must have a meaning, and meaning must have some one to mean it.
There was something personal in the world, as in a work of art;
whatever it meant it meant violently. Third, I thought this
purpose beautiful in its old design, in spite of its defects,
such as dragons. Fourth, that the proper form of thanks to it is

Next Meeting: The Napoleon of Notting Hill!

2006-07-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Chestertonians,

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday August 14th at 6:00p in the cafe at Borders Bookstore. We will be discussing the first half of The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

If we purchase 5 or 6 books at a time from Dale and the American Chesterton Society we can probably get a good discount. So if you'd like to purchase the book from the ACS tell me by sometime next Monday, because that's when I'm going to put in the order.

The text is also available online at:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/Napoleon_of_Notting_Hill.txt

Your Servant,
Jim Carrico

NCS Banner

2006-06-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I've been working on this banner and I want to get your input on it. If you would like to make a significant contribution in designing the banner I would be much obliged. No element of the banner is in any way settled. You can make small suggestions or big changes.

Your Servant,
Jim Carrico

Quotes

2006-06-02T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some quotes from Chesterton. Remember that many of his essays can be read at The American Chesterton Society Website at www.chesterton.org

man is always influenced by thought of some kind, his own or somebody else's; that of somebody he trusts or that of somebody he never heard of, thought at first, second or third hand; thought from exploded legends or unverified rumors; but always something with the shadow of a system of values and a reason for preference.

The best that can be said for the skeptic is that he cannot say what he means, and therefore, whatever else he means, he cannot mean what he says….The point is that he cannot really explain what he means; and that is the argument for a better education in philosophy.

The disadvantage of not having it is that a man will turn impatiently even from so simple a truism; and call it metaphysical gibberish. He will then go off and say: "One can't have such things in the twentieth century"; which really is gibberish.

We are always being told that men must no longer be so sharply divided into their different religions. As an immediate step in progress, it is much more urgent that they should be more clearly and more sharply divided into their different philosophies.
- G.K. Chesterton A Revival of Philosophy – Why?

Every argument begins with an infallible dogma, and that infallible dogma can only be disputed by falling back on some other infallible dogma; you can never prove your first statement or it would not be your first.

Much of our chaos about religion and doubt arises from this--that our modern skeptics always begin by telling us what they do not believe. But even in a skeptic we want to know first what he does believe. Before arguing, we want to know what we need not argue about.

All sane men, I say, believe firmly and unalterably in a certain number of things which are unproved and unprovable.

if the youth of the future must not (at present) be taught any religion, it might at least be taught, clearly and firmly, the three or four sanities and certainties of human free thought.
- G.K. Chesterton Philosophy for the Schoolroom

Welcome to the Nevada Chesterton Society!

2006-05-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

Dear fellow Chestertonians, recent inductees, and most blessed of inquisitive people,

Welcome to the Nevada Chesterton Society! There can be no more of a magnanimous task than getting to know G. K. Chesterton, other than introducing him. As some of you have been recently aquatinted with this “oversized elf” you know among his more Trifling of feats, he composed no less than 4,000 essays; good essays that would fuel any fruitful discussion for years on end. Each is as suitable for our purposes, which is of course to read and discuss Chesterton, as the next. It is an unfair, and practically unmanageable duty to be required to make a selection of a few of Chesterton’s essays and to neglect the majority for our first installment. But as it must be, it occurred to me that there is something that all “modern people want to be made to understand” before beginning any discussion. So I thought what we must know in order to discuss could be the topic of our first discussion. The answer to this riddle can be found at the American Chesterton Society (ACS) Website at the following link:

http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/philosopher/v1n6.gkcessay.htm

The essay is titled Philosophy for the Schoolroom. If you’re having difficulty navigating to this essay, go to the American Chesterton Society home page at:

http://www.chesterton.org/

click the button that says the philosopher and then the link that says Philosophy for the Schoolroom. If that doesn’t work contact me and I’ll email or mail you the essay.

In addition to this essay I’d also like to suggest The Revival of Philosophy - Why?, which can be found easily after you’ve managed to locate the first essay. To finish up I suggest a lighthearted poem like A Ballade of Suicide (I’m no being ironic). This last one can be found also on the American Chesterton Society Website at:

http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/poet/suicide.htm

Some of you may notice a theme between the first two selections, but as a general rule don’t expect one. It will be our attempt to be as stereoscopic as our patron.

We will have our first meeting Wednesday June 7th at 6:00 in the café in Borders Book Store at 4995 South Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89502. If you require directions please go to http://www.mapquest.com/ You can get maps and driving directions from this site. If you need further assistance please contact me. I realize this time and location may not work for all of you, but this will not be our permanent meeting place or time but we will discuss more permanent accommodations at this meeting. For those of you that can’t make it please send me an email with your suggestion for locations and times. After we set a permanent time and location we will generally meet there at the same time once a month.

In addition to our monthly meetings I have also created a Nevada Chesterton Society blog where you will see this letter and may post comments. The blog is located at:

http://nvchesterton.blogspot.com/

I encourage you to read the selections and post comments on them very liberally as it will make our actual meeting all the more fruitful.

A word on how discussion should be conducted: It should be empathetic, candid and generous. As Dale says “Attack ideas, not people.” or as Chesterton says “Never allow a quarrel to interrupt a good argument”

Other than that I would like to extend my most genuine welcome and heartfelt thanks to you and to God for your interest in Chesterton and this society. With his blessing and your vitality I am sure the Nevada Chesterton Society will become a grace to its members and an acclaimed fixture in Nevada.

Your Servant,
Jim Carrico
Nevada Chesterton Society