Previous Chesterton Speakers
- 2007-2008 Season
- Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., President of Gonzaga University. “The Virtual Inevitability of a
Singularity in Inflationary Model Universes:
Implications for the Creation of the Universe.”
- Dr. James R. Felak, Department of History, University of Washington. “Pope John Paul II's Historic Pilgrimage to Poland,
June 1979.”
- Dr. Catherine Jack Deavel, Department of Philosophy, University of St. Thomas (St. Paul). “Big Green Families.”
- Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society. “Paradoxy: One Hundred Years of Chesterton's
Orthodoxy.”
- Rev. Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., Department of Philosophy, Fordham University. “Thomas More and the Meaning of Conscience.”
- Dawn Eden, Author and columnist. “The Girl Who Was Thirsty: How G. K. Chesterton Led Me to Faith.”
- 2006-2007 Season
- Rev. Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P., Blessed Sacrament Parish, Seattle.
“Christianity and Other Religions:
Making Sense of Absolute Truth Claims in a Multi-religious World.”
- Dr. Robert Tracy McKenzie, Department of History, University of Washington.
“Thanksgiving, 1621-2006: Thinking ‘Christianly’ about an
American Holiday.”
- Dr. David L. Schindler, John Paul II Institute, Catholic University
of America. “Pope Benedict XVI: His Person and His Reading of the
Global Cultural Situation.”
- Dale Ahlquist, President of the American Chesterton Society.
“G. K. Chesterton and Christian Humanism.”
- Jeffrey Overstreet, film critic. “Through A Screen Darkly:
God vs. the Filmmaker.”
- John Lindblom, China specialist, Research Associates of America. “Evangelization
in China: An Unprecedented Moment.”
- 2005-2006 Season
- Brian Glenney, School of Philosophy, University of Southern
California. “Finding Jesus Christ in a Post-Christian World: The Case of
G. K. Chesterton.”
- Dr. Alberto Ferreiro, Department of History, Seattle Pacific
University. “The Crusades: Myths and Realities.”
- Suzanne M. Wolfe, Department of English, Seattle Pacific
University. “Readings from Unveiling: A Novel.”
- Mark Shea, author and Catholic apologist. “Behold Your Mother: The
Place of the Virgin Mary in the Lives of All Christian Believers.”
- Dr. James Felak, Department of History, University of Washington. “Pope
Pius XII, the Second World War, and the Holocaust.”
- 2004-2005 Season
- Dale Ahlquist, President of The American Chesterton Society. “I Vote
for Chesterton.”
- Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., President of Gonzaga University. “Why I am a
Priest, Why I am Pro-Life: Father Robert Spitzer Tells His Story.”
- Kirk Kanzelberger, Department of Philosophy, Fordham
University. “Building a Christian World View: What Thomas Aquinas Has to
Teach Us.”
- Camille De Blasi, President and CEO, Healing the Culture. “Religion
vs. Spirituality: An Unnecessary Battle of the Sexes.”
- Dr. George Nash, author and historian. “Books and the Founding Fathers.”
- Dr. Brad Birzer, Department of History, Hillsdale College. “The Bitter
Harvest of Modern Ideologies: A Christian Humanist Perspective on
Marxism, Nazism, and Fascism.”
- 2003-2004 Season
- Dr. Todd Rendleman, Department of Communication, Seattle Pacific
University. “The Action of Mercy: A Flannery O'Connor Performance
Hour.” (Co-sponsored by the Washington Commission for the Humanities.)
- Dr. Brad Birzer, Department of History, Hillsdale College. “The True
King: Tolkien and the Medieval.”
- Dr. Jeffrey Cain, Director of Institutional Advancement,
Intercollegiate Studies Institute. “Can a Conservative Be an
Environmentalist?”
- Dr. Robert Tracy McKenzie, Department of History, University of
Washington. “An Examination of Some Common Myths about the Civil War.”
- Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J., Department of Philosophy, Fordham
University. “Laws of Men and Laws of Nature.”
- Perry Lorenzo, Director of Education, Seattle Opera. “Music of the
Spheres: Musical Interpretations of Dante.”
- 2002-2003 Season
- Dr. Glenn Arbery, Director, The Teachers Academy, The Dallas Institute
of Humanities and Culture. “Measure and Freedom: Imagination and Its
Discontents.”
- Gregory Wolfe, Department of English, Seattle Pacific
University. “Tragedy and Hope in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth.”
- Dr. Edward Alexander, Department of English, University of
Washington. “John Henry Newman and Victorian Religion.”
- Dale Ahlquist, President, The American Chesterton Society.
“The Undiscovered Chesterton.”
- Dr. Andrew Tadie, Department of English, Seattle University. “The
Trouble with One's Birthday: Chesterton's Argument against
Traditionalism.”
- Rev. James Schall, S.J., Department of Political Science, Georgetown
University. “On Seeing What Is: Hillaire Belloc on Walking.”
- 2001-2002 Season
- Dr. Faizi Ghodsi and Dr. James Felak: A discussion of Islamic and
Catholic just war theory.
- Dr. James Felak, Department of History, University of Washington. “Vaclav
Havel, Solzhenitzyn and John Paul II on the Social Implications of Atheism”
.
- Suzanne Wolfe, Department of English, Seattle Pacific University. “Harry
Potter: In Search of a Deeper Magic”
- Rev. Joseph Stanichar, pastor, St. John Chrysostom Church. “Byzantine
Christianity’s Contribution to the Catholic Church.”
- Adrian Wilson, Technology Manager, Microsoft Corporation. “The Good Life
and Life at Microsoft.”
- Dr. Peter Beaulieu, “ABC: Alaric, Bin Laden, and the City of
God.”
- Some Speakers from Earlier Seasons
- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, on liberalism in the West
- Rev. Robert Spitzer, S.J., on happiness; on cosmology, creation and God
- Sherrie Waddell, on developing spiritual gifts
- David Curp, on Christianity and historical scholarship
- Rev. James Reichmann, S.J., on animal rights
- Pete Beaulieu, on the encyclical letter Centesimus Annus; on
religious architecture as metaphor
- Dan Doyle, Pete Beaulieu and Phillip Goggans, on the encyclical letter
Fides et Ratio
- James Felak, on Newman on education; on the social implications of atheism
- Dan Doyle, on the meaning of suffering
- Timothy T. O’Donnell, on Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man
- Michael Mattriotti, on Western philosophy since the Renaissance
- John Spellman, former governor of Washington, on rhetoric and the
political process
- Camille DeBlasi, on abortion
- Rev. Michael Sweeney, O.P., on the role of the laity in the Catholic
Church; on Catholic social and political theory
- Dale Ahlquist, on Chesterton
- Mark Shea, on evangelism; on interpreting the Scriptures; on popular
objections to Catholicism
- Robert Tracy McKenzie, on being a Christian professor in a secular
university
- Phillip Goggans, on natural law theory
- Tomás Gahan, on Dante
- Robin Bernhoft, on the Church’s impact on human rights in European history
- John West, on ethics and politics
- Michael MacDonald, on C. S. Lewis