July 20 Meeting of the WPA Chesterton Society

Greetings WPA Chestertonians,

We will gather on July 20, 2018 for our next-to-last session on Chesterton's biography St. Thomas Aquinas. Please read chapters 6 and 7 in anticipation of our discussion. We will gather in the Village of Middle Lancaster at the Community Center. Bring something to share with the refreshments table, and come anytime after 7:00PM. We will begin our discussion at 7:30PM, and finish up around 9:30ish PM   

*Please note: For the remainder of this year, we will be meeting on the third Friday evening of each month. This is a shift from the second Friday sequence we have had in the past.  

We will finish our discussion of the St. Thomas Aquinas book at our August 17 meeting, therefore... (drum roll) ... starting in September, we will begin reading and discussing the book The Scrappy Evangelist by Fr. Paul Rowan. We will read this through the autumn months, hopefully finishing before Christmas.

The Scrappy Evangelist is available on the internet for $22.11 (Amazon Prime) and half that for a Kindle edition. As a local Chesterton society affiliated with the ACS, we qualify for a 30% discount on the $24.99 cover price of the book if we purchase 10 copies, or more. I would like to organize a group purchase of the book from the American Chesterton Society. I estimate that with the tax and shipping this would come to about $20 per book. I personally need 2 copies, so if 8 more folks would commit to giving me $20 dollars for the book at our July or August meetings, I can place the order in time for our September meeting. Please email me and/or bring your money to the meeting if you are interested in participating in the group buy.

Here is the description of the book from the ACS website:

How do we defend the faith in today’s world? Where are the connecting points with an audience that does not like or does not even care about religion? What will prevent us from being merely reactionary? Surprisingly, the best strategy may come from a writer who anticipated our present problem a hundred years ago: G.K. Chesterton.
In this scholarly, yet scrappy approach, English Priest and Former Boxer Paul Rowan masterfully makes the case of how Chesterton can be used to develop a new apologetics to engage the post-modern age.

“As an apologist Chesterton was nothing if not counter-cultural, yet what emerges wonderfully from these pages is his great human warmth and Catholic generosity of spirit. G.K. is not merely a captivating figure from the past, he is also – as again and again we are reminded in this thoughtful and compelling study – a necessary contemporary at a time of great confusion, a thinker, a celebrant of the faith, a radiant apostle still one step ahead of us.”
– Father Paul Murray, OP

 Consultor to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Vatican

“Recent popes have summoned Christians to an evangelization “new in its ardor, new in its methods, and new in its expression” (Pope John Paul II). This is exactly where the inspiring figure and personality of G.K. Chesterton, together with his writings and bon mots, can assist Christians both in their own growth and in their witness to others.”
– Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth, England

“Father Rowan…puts Peter in dialogue with Pan.”
– Charles J. Scicluna, Archbishop of Malta

“Chesterton fights in the heavy-weight division, and rains devastating blows of logic and common sense. Father Rowan gives us a ringside seat.” – Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society 

 Any questions or comments, please feel free to email Vicki at wpachesterton@gmail.com