Ahlquist, Dale

PERSONAL:

Married; children: six. Education: Carleton College, B.A.; Hamline University, M.A. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Office—American Chesterton Society, 4117 Pebblebrook Cir., Minneapolis, MN 55437. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

American Chesterton Society, Minneapolis, MN, president and cofounder; Gilbert Magazine, Minneapolis, publisher and editor. Creator and host, G.K. Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense, Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). Chairman of annual G.K. Chesterton Conference, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Speaker at institutions, including Yale University, Columbia University, New York University, Dartmouth University, Williams College, Cornell University, Seattle Pacific University, Rice University, University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa, University of Illinois, University of Georgia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Tulsa, Villanova University, University of Minnesota School of Law, Ave Maria School of Law, Mundelein Seminary, Vatican Forum, Thomas More Centre, Prince of Lichtenstein Fellowship, Oscott Seminary, and the British House of Lords.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellow, Oklahoma Wesleyan Worldview Institute.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor) The Gift of Wonder: The Many Sides of G.K. Chesterton, American Chesterton Society (Minneapolis, MN), 2001.

G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Ignatius Press (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

(Editor and author of commentary) G.K. Chesterton, Lepanto, Ignatius Press (San Francisco, CA), 2004.

Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton, Ignatius Press (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

Author of The Chesterton University Student Handbook. Contributor of articles to The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, Christian History, St. Austin's Review, Chronicles, Envoy, Catholic Servant, Christian Higher Education, Recusant History, and Ave Maria Law Review. Associate editor, "The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton" series, Ignatius Press.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dale Ahlquist is a specialist in the works of the popular English author and speaker G.K. Chesterton. Ahlquist has traveled widely in America and abroad, delivering talks on Chesterton in venues as varied as Yale University, the Vatican Forum in Rome, and the British House of Lords. Ahlquist's goal is to reacquaint modern readers and listeners with Chesterton's advocacy of Roman Catholicism as an essential guiding force in human life. Through his work as creator and host of the television series G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense for the Eternal World Television Network, his books describing Chesterton's philosophy, and his ongoing work as an editor of Chesterton's opus, Ahlquist "has delighted audiences around the country," to quote an interviewer with Ignatius Insight online magazine.

Ahlquist grew up in an Evangelical Christian household and only began reading Chesterton as an adult. The experience transformed Ahlquist in fundamental ways, including a conversion to Roman Catholicism. Professionally Ahlquist decided to devote his efforts to Chesterton scholarship, but in a way that would open Chesterton's work to the kind of people who once found Chesterton interesting—general readers looking for answers to deep philosophical, lifestyle, and religious questions. In books such as Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton and G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Ahlquist combines passages from Chesterton's books with commentary that applies to pertinent social issues of the twenty-first century. In his interview with Ignatius Insight, Ahlquist described Chesterton as a "complete thinker" who wrote about such a variety of topics that reading him "is almost a complete education in itself." What Ahlquist scans Chesterton's voluminous works for pertinent passages on the ways religion intersects not only with family life and values, but also with art, economics, politics, and philosophy. According to Ahlquist, Chesterton used Roman Catholicism as a benchmark from which to examine a wide variety of fields of endeavor.

In a Homiletic & Pastoral Review piece on Ahlquist's Common Sense 101, Michael J. Miller wrote that Ahlquist serves as a "genial guide" to Chesterton's most important insights on topics such as family life, compulsory education, and the rediscovery of a sense of wonder about the world. "For anyone these essays can be an enjoyable ‘refresher course’ in right reason," Miller stated. Booklist contributor Ray Olson found favor with Ahlquist's choices for quotation in Common Sense 101, considering Chesterton's enormous output of prose, verse, speeches, and debates. Ahlquist's guide to Chesterton, Olson concluded, is "one of the most enjoyable works of Christian ‘propaganda’ you will ever read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton, p. 21.

Library Journal, March 1, 2006, Graham Christian, review of Common Sense 101, p. 94.

ONLINE

American Chesterton Society,http://www.chesterton.org/ (January 21, 2008), "Invite Dale Ahlquist."

Homiletic & Pastoral Review,http://www.ignatius.com/magazines/hprweb/ (January 21, 2008), Michael J. Miller, review of Common Sense 101.

Ignatius Insight,http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/ (January 21, 2008), Carl E. Olson, "Seeing with the Eyes of G.K. Chesterton: An Interview with Dale Ahlquist."