The Strangest Story in the World: G.K. Chesterton & the Incarnation

C.S. Lewis famously credited G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man as a key step in his turn from atheism to Christian faith. The book audaciously surveyed the broad sweep of human history, then zeroed in on the Incarnation of Christ. How, Chesterton asked, could such a mysterious and startling event come to be known as the center point of history? And how did this intellectual mystic offer a fresh path into this story for so many? 

In this episode, we dive into one of Chesterton’s greatest works and explore the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus Christ alongside Dale Ahlquist, one of the world’s leading experts on G.K. Chesterton:

“Philosophy and religion come together for the first time when Jesus comes. Why is that so strange? Because the spiritual life and the intellectual life have finally run into each other in a big way. And how does it come? It comes in the most unexpected way possible.”

Our 100th podcast episode illustrates what we do here at the Trinity Forum: keeping the Christian intellectual tradition alive, while also nurturing new growth – for our own time, and for future generations.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation recorded in 2024. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Dale Ahlquist.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

 The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton

C.S. Lewis

Evelyn Waugh

 G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, by Dale Ahlquist

 Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton
The Everlasting Man: A Guide to G.K. Chesterton’s Masterpiece, by Dale Ahlquist

George MacDonald

C.S. Lewis

Charles Dickens

William Shakespeare

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher

Alan Jacobs

H.G. Wells

 Roger Kipling
 George Bernard Shaw

Related Trinity Forum Readings:
The Strangest Story in the World, by G.K. Chesterton
Bright Evening Star’, by Madeleine L’Engle
Babbette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen
The Gift of the Magi & Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen, by O. Henry
 Why God Became Man, by Anselm
The Spirit of the Imagination: Selections from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with an introduction by Malcolm Guite
Handel's Messiah
The Oracle of the Dog, by G.K. Chesterton
The Golden Key, by George McDonald

Related Conversations:
Waiting on the Word with Malcolm Guite
Advent: The Season of Hope, with Tish Harrison Warren
Renewing the Joy of Advent, with Hannah Anderson

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society

Special thanks to Ned Bustard for our podcast artwork.