March 13, 2015
Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians,

We will gather this Friday, March 13 to begin our exploration into G.K Chesterton biography of William Cobbett. About the book, Dale Ahlquist writes,

"It has been said (never mind by whom) that Chesterton’s books about others are really about himself. The qualities he admired in these indeed admirable characters were qualities that we immediately recognize in Chesterton. This is especially true of William Cobbett.

Like Chesterton, William Cobbett (1763-1835) was a writer of many genres who cannot be pinned to just one. He was a social critic who defied the new and fashionable ideas of his day, defending local culture, tradition, the family and the farm. And for this he was called “paradoxical.” He had great literary gifts, but much to the frustration of his greatest fans, he poured most of his energy into scrappy journalism and his own small circulation papers. He was prolific, witty, prophetic, controversial. He spoke “too plainly to be understood.” He was “a great public character; form some points of view a great comic character.” And he was a Distributist before there was Distributism.

Chesterton was especially impressed by the insightfulness of Cobbett’s writing in two main aspects: his history, which was an honest look at the past, and his economics, which was a prophetic look at the future...."

You can read the rest of Dale's thoughts on William Cobbett by clicking this link to a page on the American Chesterton Society's web site. Better yet, read the foreword, introduction and the first two chapters of the book William Cobbett by G.K Chesterton, and come to the meeting on Friday where we will begin to answer the questions "Who was this guy?", "Why was Chesterton interested in him?"and "What does he have to say to us today?". 

Those of you who requested to order a copy of the Cobbett book but were not able come to the February meeting to pick it up, can get your books at the meeting this Friday. They are $10 per copy. For those who are without a copy, it is available to view or print on the internet at this link.

On a special note: 

In order to observe the Christian tradition of fasting and alms giving for the season of Lent, we will not have our customary refreshment table at the March 13 meeting. Instead there will be a collection box. In lieu of our usual contributions of food and beverages, we each will have an opportunity to make charitable contributions of alms designated for the American Chesterton Society. I will consolidate the money, and send it to the ACS as a donation of alms from our Western Pa Chesterton Society. If you miss the meeting and would like to participate, you can make your donation directly to the American Chesterton Society on their website www.chesterton.org, or mail it to me and I will add it to the collections from the group. In doing this, our Western PA Chesterton Society will support the American Chesterton Society's mission to bring Christ to people around the world by introducing them to Chesterton. Imagine the good that would be accomplished if every local Chesterton society member were to give something no matter how small a gift.

As usual...

Our meetings are held in the Village of Middle Lancaster, at the Lancaster Township Community Center located on Kings Alley and Community Center Drive, in Butler County PA. Kings Ally is off of Rt. 19 approx. 4.5 miles north of Zelienople, and just north of the Zion Lutheran Church and just south of East Lancaster Road. (The Community Center is a former one room school house, adjacent to the ball fields at Bauder Park.) The doors open at 7:00pm with the discussion beginning at 7:30. The meeting wraps up sometime around 9:30pm.

As always, feel free to email me at wpachesterton@gmail.com if you have and questions or comments.