Examine The Complete Thinker: The Marvelous Mind Of G.K. Chesterton Authored By Dale Ahlquist Presented In Ebook

Ahlquist would rather be reading Chesterton than reading anyone else, and he wants to bring us, his readers, to the same place, I will readily affirm that this book greatly magnified my appetite for reading Chestertonand it was already highif for no other reason than the sheer volume of topics that Chesterton wrote about.
He was one of the most prolific writers of the lastyears, and literally every view he expressedon any topicwas cohesive, internally consistent, and related to all his other views.
He was able to discern the true heart of an issue and to describe it with a clarity of insight that was often surprising in its simplicity.


I've read Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries and quite enjoyed them, I've started Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man more than once, and I'm even more determined now to get through them, The difficulty is not that Chesterton is unreadable, The opposite is true. Rather, the intellectual routes he takes to get to his final conclusions seem meandering while reading thembut once you get to the end, everything clicks into place and you realize how simple yet profound his point is.
It takes consistent mental concentration to fully engage Chesterton, But it's worth it, and Alqhist is a good evangelist for doing so,

If Ahlqhist's goal is to get the reader to thirst for Chesterton, he succeeds, but he occasionally does so in a negative way, Much of the book is simply a string of Chesterton quotes pulled from a myriad of sources, with Ahlqhist guiding the conversation and providing a summary of Chesterton's view on the particular subject at hand.
If Alqhist would rather be reading Chesterton, as he states, he sometimes makes the reader want to skip his own book about Chesterton and simply move to the real stuff.


If this were a biography, it would border on hagiography, as Alquhist clearly adores Chesterton and is upfront about dismissing literally all of his critics.
But this book isn't about Chesterton the man, or his life, per se, It's about his mind, and the comprehensive worldview found in it, There is truly no thinker like Chesterton, I bought this book very excited to read it, In all my studies I've heard of Chesterton and read snippets of him here and there, He is, as Ahlquist states over and over, a very quotable writer, I wanted a deeper dive, so when I saw an ad for this book, read the synopsis of it at the publisher's website, and read several quoted reviews, I thought: This is it this is my introduction to the man.


Ahlquist divides his book intochapters, several of which carry "black and white" titles such as "Old and New", "East and West", "War and Peace", etc.
The problem with such an approach is apparent from the titles themselves: rarely does real life compartmentalize itself so easily, so very neatly so before I've even begun to read I was wondering, "How is this going to be pulled off" The answer, as I read, is: not very well.


I began reading in earnest but was disappointed rather quickly, Ahlquist's style of writing irritated me a bit it is simple, but not simply explaining things, as an F, F. Bruce might. For example: the tedious exploration of "how young people talk" p,as a reflection of how they think, You're seriously taking ayearold girl and holding her up as to how "they" think I almost put the book down right there, Or, later: "G. K. Chesterton is truly a man of letters, Truly. " p OK, I really believe you, Really.

Be warned, too, that Ahlquist is a devout Roman Catholic, and his view shows through in many points and parts, It seems that every few pages he is writing ", . . and this brings us to the Catholic Church, " Just a sampling includes the following: Contraception is an "unnatural act" p,the "Virgin Mary" is the "perfect woman" p,theories of the "just war" ChapterCalvinism the Reformation is heresy p,clergy I'm assuming Roman Catholic priests are exceptional throughout the text whereas the New Testament writers clearly cite all believers as the new preisthood and the authority of the pope p.
. Of course, for Ahlquist, the "object of sex is life" that is, procreation p,. I disagree in strong terms with his point here: as ayearold man, I can tell you without reservation that the object of my sex is mutual pleasure, not procreation.
And as a Christian I was born Catholic but became a Christian when I was, the sexual act to me is a physical, emotional, and spiritual union that reflects in some way the mystical union of Christ with His bride, the Church.


Ahlquist presents some concepts in large brushstrokes where dipping into particulars might serve him and the reader better, For example, in the chapter "Old and New" he talks of Modernism as if he is living in the time of Chesterton and not in thest century.
He disparages "modern philosophers" and "new theologians" but does not name any, In the late chapter on "Sickness and Health" he laments that folks without health insurance "have no business darkening the doors of a hospital" p,. This is simply not true I know he is doing it for effect and reaching for humor but such broad strokes serve little purpose but to inflame emotions around an issue that is all at once economic, personal, and political.
And sometimes in his enthusiastic approach to the material he seems to leave vital things out, For example, in the chapter on "Sickness and Health", Ahlquist writes that Chesterton is trying to help us have a "right understanding of the human person, who is a combination of body and spirit" p.
. Humans are actually tripartite beings body, soul, and spirit seeThessalonians:, This is no small error, Neither is his confusion of "religion" and "spirituality", Or when he quotes Chesterton that earth is a task garden and heaven is a playground, Really That's the summation of your spirituality your theology of how we're here on earth to store up treasure in heaven in preparation for what is to come Beyond being a childish view of the spiritual world, it is a weak and dangerous view.


More irritating than troublesome are Ahlquist's metatext moments "speaking to the reader" sprinkled throughout the text, where it literally feels like he stops writing his book to wink at the reader.
"I mention all this right here because it is certainly relevant, but also because you are probably going to skip chapter, which is about economics, just like you skipped the last chapter, which was about sin" p.
. I felt like jumping right into the book to retort: "Well, no, Mr, Ahlquist, I did not skip the chapter on sin, and I won't be skipping the chapter on economics, But you're giving me lots of reasons to do so!" And sometimes his asides are condescending: "The harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
" Haven't heard that last one It's from the Epistle of Saint James, chapter, verse, And the verses that come right after it explain why wars begin, You should probably look them up sometime, " p.Thanks, Mr. Ahlquist, but I do know that one because I've read the Bible from cover to cover, twice, in two different translations,

All is not lost, though, There are some great moments in the book, They mostly come when Ahlquist is quoting Chesterton which he does liberally wide swaths of the book are given over to block quotations from Chesterton sometimes this works, sometimes this works to distract.
In the chapter "East and West" basically pitting Christianity against Buddhism, Chesterton is quoted: "It is as true of democratic fraternity as of divine love sham love ends in compromise and common philosophy but real love has always ended in bloodshed" p.
. But then he goes down a rabbit hole with some odd review of a book of poems Chesterton wrote and how the poet was a heroin addict, a Satanist, and a tool of the Illuminati.
Very odd. "It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged" p,. The chapter on "Buying and Selling" and Chesterton's role in the formation of and advocacy for Distributism on the political spectrum between the Left's Socialism and the Right's Capitalism.
It's the idea that property ownership is a fundamental right of man, Here Ahlquist gets on a great roll: "Freedom means selfgovernment, which means ruling yourself instead of having someone else rule you, But ruling yourself means selfcontrol" p,. As an aside, it's interesting to note how Ahlquist quotes Chesterton many times on the importance of libertyfor example, "Property is really the positive form of Liberty.
" p But he does not bring it full circle back to Jefferson's famous words in the Declaration of Independence: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"and how that phrase was debated among the founders and that some argued for "the pursuit of property".
Evidently, Jefferson and Chesterton were closer thinkers than anyone realized!

For all this I found the book an interesting and eyeopening read, It did serve its purpose as a solid introduction to Chesterton, "the complete thinker", The man's breadth and depth of writings are quite impressive, And there are many wonderful one liners to remember and even write down, My issue with the book was Ahlquist's heavy hand throughout, inserting himself with his stilted, unhelpful, and sometimes confusing prose into the text to try to prove his own particular points some would say to grind his ax.
While I can agree with him on many issues about society's decay, and the reasons for that decay, it did not work for me in how he was presenting it it here.
Finally, for me, Alhquist failed in what he set out to doto put it all together p,because the book has not brought together the totality of Chesteron's thoughts, it simply compartmentalizes his different thoughts on different subjects, Then the book just ends, Still, he could not prevent the brilliance of Chesterton from shining through, It was a decent overview of Chesterton's writings on a wide variety of topics and, in parts, a very challenging and enjoyable read,

./stars. "it was ok" Easy to read, Full of surprises. Great overview of Chesterton's beliefs and accomplishments, Bonus in the appendix with Chesterton's debate with Clarence Darrow, Highly recommend this. Our spiritual book club picked this for our July meeting and this is a good choice for a group or an individual, I have always love the GK Chesterton quotes that I would encounter they always seemed to make so much sense and now I understand why, While I may not agree with his Catholic faith, the man is truly a 'complete thinker' and will make anyone else who reads his material a better thinker.
This work by Dale Ahlquist will lead me to read Chesterton,

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