Stanley L. Jaki, Osb
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VOLUME 13 NUMBER 1, SEPTEMBER 2009 $5.50 Stanley L. Jaki, OSB August 17, 1924 – April 7, 2009 But thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight. —Wisdom 11:20 Listen Up! Two Chesterton Classics Now Available As Audiobooks. ORTHODOXY Read by Dale Ahlquist (8 Compact Discs) $34.95 THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN A Dramatic Reading by Kevin O’Brien Introductions and Epilogues by Dale Ahlquist (12 Compact Discs) $44.95 Listen to these great books in the car or when you are otherwise paralyzed. Thrill at the Father Brown mysteries as actor Kevin O’Brien brings them to life. Contemplate the depth and mirth of Orthodoxy again and again. ❏ ORTHODOXY QTY: ____ ❏ THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN QTY: ____ + $3.00 Shipping each set TOTAL: __________ NAME A C ADDRESS S 4117 Pebblebrook Circle, CITY/STATE/ZIP Minneapolis, MN 55437 952-831-3096 PHONE [email protected] www.chesterton.org ❏ VISA ❏ MC ❏ AMEX ❏ DISC # (Or include your check/MO) EXP. DATE SIGNATURE listenup_ad.indd 1 8/18/08 12:03:05 PM : TA B L E OF C O N T EN T S : Volume 13 Number 1, September 2009 4 |:TREMENDOUS TRIFLES: 22 |:CONFERENCE REPORT: 5 |:LUNACY & LETTERS: The English Chesterton Society Conference 7 |:EDITORIAL: BY FR. THOMAS LUTZ Old Friends and Old Misunderstandings 25 |:TALES OF THE SHORT BOW: 8 |:STRawS IN THE WIND: The Explorer The Sentimentalist Of Science BY JOHN PETERSON Ballade of Capital Sweethearting 38 |:FEAR OF FILM: BY G.K. CHESTERTON BY JAMES G. BRUEN JR. L’Argent 10 |:ALARMS & DISCURSIONS: 28 |:MANALIVE: REVIEWED BY ART LIVINGSTON An Interview with Peter J. Floriani Funderburke: A Book Proposal John Adams BY DALE AHLQUIST BY CHRIS CHAN REVIEWED BY CHRIS CHAN 13 |:A MISCELLANY OF MEN: 29 |:JOGGING WITH G.K.: 41 |:THE SIGnatURE OF MAN: Chesterton’s Hagiographer? On Treadmills Abbey’s “The Trial of BY DALE AHLQUIST BY ROBERT MOORE-JUMONVILLE Queen Catherine” BY G.K. CHESTERTON 14 |:TRIBUTE TO StanLEY JAKI, O.S.B.: 30 |: THE DETECTION CLUB: What Chesterton “Becomes” The Crime of Sheriff Dirks 42 |:ALL IS GRIST: BY JAMES V. SCHALL, S.J. BY JOHN PETERSON Darwinian Dilemma Seer of Scientism Chesterton’s Bloodthirsty Heirs BY JOE CAMPBELL BY JOHN PETERSON The Paradise of Human Fishes Walk the Straight Ideas Understood BY STEVE MILLER and Narrow Path & Misunderstood When Good Screenwriters BY CHRIS CHAN BY DavID BERESFORD Become Missing Persons 44 |:THE DISTRIBUTIST: Rock Bottom: Heretics, BY CHRIS CHAN Insectolatry GKC, and Fr. Jaki 34 |:BOOK REVIEWS: BY ROY F. MOORE BY NANCY CARPENTIER BROWN American Babylon: Notes 46 |:CHESTERTON UNIVERSITY: Liberal Thinking of a Christian Exile by Still Fighting From the Grave DavID W. FAGERBERG Richard John Neuhaus BY DALE AHLQUIST In Another Language REVIEWED BY JOHN C. “ChUCK” ChALBERG 47 |:CHESTERTON’s MAIL BAG: BY KYRO R. LANTSBERGER Does Harry Potter Tickle Sleeping Social Reform, Shaw, Art, Morality, Dragons? by Nancy Solon Villaluz “Champion of the Universe” and What to Call People from Scotland REVIEWED BY NANCY CARPENTIER BROWN BY DALE AHLQUIST 48 |:NEWS WITH VIEWS: The Great Canadian Comedy: From Laughter to Tears by Joe Campbell 50 |:ENCORE!: REVIEWED BY DavID PAUL DEavEL Saner Science BY G.K. CHESTERTON 36 |:OFF THE SHELF WITH MIKE FOSTER So Finely Tuned A Universe: of Cover design by Ted Schluenderfritz Atoms, Stars, Quanta, and God Photo of Fr. Stanley Jaki by Julie Dailey PUBLISHER: Dale Ahlquist, President, ACS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Sean P. Dailey ART DIRECTOR: Ted Schluenderfritz LITERARY EDITOR: Therese Warmus COPY EDITOR: Mike Foster SENIOR WRITER: John Peterson ContRIBUTING EdItoRS: David Beresford, Nancy Carpentier Brown, Joe Campbell, John C. Chalberg, Christopher Chan, David Paul Deavel, David W. Fagerberg, Mike Foster, Kyro Lantsberger, Art Livingston, Roy Moore, Robert Moore-Jumonville, James V. Schall SJ “NEWS WITH VIEWS” EdItoRS: Nathan Allen, Mark Pilon, Larry Pavlicek, Ted Olsen SUBSCRIptIonS: (See Coupon Page 6) Credit Card Orders: call 1-800-343-2425 or fax 1-270-325-3091 LEttERS and ARTICLES: Gilbert Magazine, American Chesterton Society, 4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minneapolis, MN 55437 [email protected] www.gilbertmagazine.com Letters to the editor may be edited for length or clarity. GILBERT MAGAZINE is published every six weeks by The American Chesterton Society, a non-profit corporation established under Paragraph 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Tax Code. Donations to the American Chesterton Society are tax-deductible in the United States. Your contributions help support the publication of Gilbert Magazine. Please send your donations to: The American Chesterton Society, 4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minneapolis, MN 55437. The views expressed by Gilbert Magazine contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher, the editors, or the American Chesterton Society. COPYRIGHT ©2009 BY THE AMERICAN CHESTERTON SOCIETY. Gilbert Magazine Outlining Sanity 3 : TREMENDOUS TRIFLES : by Sean P. Dailey hen Fr. Stanley L. Jaki died last spring, someone G.K. Chesterton’s collection of essays at Gilbert Magazine said, “Let’s do a Fr. Jaki Tremendous Trifles was published. Urging commemorative issue.” This is that issue. As 100 us all to be “ocular athletes” and look at part of that commemoration, this issue con- years ago the world with a new sense of wonder, the tains a special section on Fr. Jaki, beginning book received mixed reviews. The Times regarded it Won page 14, with contributions from James V. Schall, S.J., as a trifle, “slight and transitory,” and not tremendous. John Peterson, David Beresford, Nancy Carpentier Brown, The Daily Telegraph called it a “mere exercise in verbal David Fagerberg, Kyro Lantsberger, and publisher Dale gymnastics.” The Planet, however, said that only a dull Ahlquist. For Fr. Schall, Beresford, Brown, Fagerberg, and reader could not rejoice with Chesterton and the “fresh- Lantsberger, these essays are their normal contribution. ness [and] healthy breeziness about his writing.” And The articles from Peterson and Ahlquist are extras. Other The Bookman heaped on praise, saying that Chesterton offings in this commemorative issue include an interview “streams into print with an abandon as easy as that of a with Peter Floriani (page 10), who knew Fr. Jaki. This boy whittling a stick.” issue’s editorial (page 7) and Joe Campbell’s column (page 42) also deal with the issue of science vs. religion. Finally, G.K. Chesterton brings his considerable intellect to bear Dominicans who have completed their novitiate in with articles on “The Sentimentalist of Science” (page 8) Cincinnati, Ohio: and “Saner Science” (page 50). An August 15 Mass of Simple Profession was celebrated at ¶ The fifth season of Dale’s EWTN series The Apostle St. Gertrude’s Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the Mass, of Common Sense premiered on September 6 and airs Fr. Brian Mulcahy, O.P., the Vicar Provincial, received the each Sunday at 8 p.m. Central time (9 p.m. Eastern). This vows of the nine brothers completing their novitiate. The nine season features episodes on Language, the Problem of Evil, brothers making their simple profession were: Br. Thomas America, Islam, War, Parenthood, the Priesthood, Modern- More Garrett, O.P.; Br. John Devaney, O.P.; Br. Boniface ism, and more. There will be a special episode on the Toy Endorf, O.P.; Br. Joseph Fussner, O.P.; Br. Benedict Joseph Freeman, O.P.; Br. Sebastian White, O.P.; Br. Gabriel Torretta, Theatre that you will not want to miss, a whole new batch O.P.; Br. Paul Marich, O.P.; and Br. Innocent Smith, O.P. of “Ask Mr. Chesterton” vignettes, and look for multiple appearances by that ex-seminarian Stanford Nutting. The Ellen writes: “I’m glad to see Innocent Smith made it kick-off episode was about something called Truth. And, as through his novitiate year.” always, we’ll be preempted by the Pope on a regular basis. ¶ At the American Chesterton Society blog, Dr. Thurs- ¶ The revolution continues I: Last summer, Joseph Pearce day (or in the vernacular, Peter Floriani) has begun a new traveled to Chile, where he gave seven talks in four days to weekly series, a chapter-by-chapter study of Chesterton’s a combined audience of more than 2,000. He also sat for 1910 book, What’s Wrong With the World. This promises to one radio interview and two newspaper be every bit as engaging and lively as his interviews, one of which was to the largest weekly study of Orthodoxy, completed last selling newspaper in the country. All on the Have a Trifle? Send it to spring (and which can be found, neatly theme of “A Crusade for G.K. Chesterton.” [email protected] indexed, at (americanchestertonsociety. ¶ The revolution continues II: Congratu- blogspot.com/2008/09/index-to-thursdays- lations to Chesterton Academy in St. Louis of-orthodoxy.html). “The first item on our Park, Minnesota, on beginning its second year of classes. agenda is to consider the title,” Dr. T wrote in his first post, The independent high school, co-founded by Dale Ahlquist before providing lengthy quotes from Chesterton and lengthy and supported in part by the American Chesterton Society, commentary from himself. Oh, and I should add that next has doubled its student body in one year and has received year’s conference will celebrate the 100th anniversary of that national attention for its integrated, classical curriculum important book. that combines faith and reason. For more information, visit ¶ Speaking of the Chesterton conference, CDs of talks of chestertonacademy.org. the 2009 conference should be available soon. Keep check- ¶ The Chesterton Society (of England) held a one-day ing the American Chesterton Society Web page for details. conference in July at Oxford on the topic, “The Holiness of ¶ Parting Trifle: Gilbert Magazine contributing editor Chesterton.” Fr.