Recapturing Culture with Dale Ahlquist and Joseph Pearce

Today I want to introduce you to two men who are working tirelessly to promote Western, especially Catholic, culture through books, television, magazines, and online. I have met them both and they are genial, witty, and humble. They have great intellect but know that their abilities come from God and that their work is designed to give Him the glory. Both are converts to Catholicism and I think this gives them a fire that we who are born into the faith sometimes lack.

I was familiar with Dale Ahlquist because of the American Chesterton Society, a group dedicated to introducing people to the thought and writings of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Then, in 1998 I met him when he appeared on my husband’s cable access show where he came to discuss Chesterton and the concept of distributism, a socio-economic theory that property and goods should be widely owned as opposed to having them concentrated in the hands of a powerful few, such as the State.

We also attended some of the annual conferences on Chesterton, first held for several years in St. Paul (where Mr. Ahlquist is from). He and volunteers, which included his family, put these conferences together, inviting speakers from around the world to talk about Chesterton and his philosophies and writing. Over the years the conferences have grown and are held in other locales. He started the American Chesterton Society in 1996, appeared on programs on EWTN, and publishes and edits Gilbert: The Magazine of the American Chesterton Society. If that weren’t enough, he also co-founded the Chesterton Academy, a Catholic high school in Minneapolis. Additionally, he has written over a dozen books. 

 It was at one of the Chesterton conferences that I met Joseph Pearce. There was an empty seat beside me in a packed auditorium and he came to sit for a few minutes. After a brief chat he said he had to be going. The next thing I knew, he was being introduced as the next speaker. Over the years I have met him at talks and book signings. He’s always generous with his time in signing a book and grateful as a “fan” praises his work.

His autobiography, Race With the Devil tells of his “road to Damascus” journey of conversion. He has written books about J.R.R. Tolkien, Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, and Oscar Wilde, as well as the Hobbit, the Catholic Reformation, and Shakespeare. He edits the St. Austin Review (StAR), a “journal of Catholic culture, literature, and ideas.” In 2014 he became the Director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. When it’s deemed safe again, I’m sure he’ll be back on the lecture circuit as a sought-after speaker. And these are only some of his accomplishments.

For more information about Mr. Ahlquist and Mr. Pearce and their work, check the links at the right for The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and the St. Austin Review.