For our meeting in December 2025 - on Sunday, December 21st, at 6:00 PM at Ivy Hall - we are going  to try again for a reading and discussion of the reading packet we put together last year. Owing to illnesses and travel and other schedule conflicts, our meeting in December 2024 was only attended by a couple of guests, but we think the collection of readings we've put together are very worth revisiting and discussing with a larger group.

​As with last year's attempt, we will again include as part of this meeting a practical demonstration of the game, "Snapdragon." It will be important to see the game played because, as the discussion will hopefully bring out, the "principle" Chesterton discerns behind this game could, with no exaggeration, be called the core principle of his whole philosophy of life and morality - no, really! 

RSVP below the jump, and download the reading packet using the button.

 For November, the month of the dead, we have something special planned.

​We will meet, as usual, on the 3rd Sunday of the month, Sunday, November 16, 2025 at Ivy Hall at 6:00 PM.

For our reading, we have a special packet containing a symposium of essays held in the Daily News in 1928, answering the question, "Where are the Dead?" Chesterton and Belloc are contributors, along with some lesser known folks, and one even arguably better known, at least to most - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

Adding to the fun, George Bernard Shaw "butts in" with a letter to the editor, which kicks off an exchange of letters between him and GKC. 

Finally, three bonuses: interspersed throughout the packet, authentic advertisements from the Daily News at the time, to help give the feel of the thing; an extra essay from GKC in the Illustrated London News looking back on the symposium; and an extra packet to look at if you want to see all the essays from the correspondance on their original newspaper pages. 

This'll be a fun one. Invite a friend! RSVP below the jump...

For our October meeting, Sunday, October 19, at 6:00 PM at Ivy Hall we will be discussing Chesterton's play, Magic. 

There are a lot of options for finding the play.

You can read it online in full.

Various print editions, new and used, can be found at ABE Books. A free audiobook rendition is available at LibriVox.

And YouTube also has various productions available to watch, including a high-quality stage-play recording, a professional film version (substantially adapted), and others.

​RSVP for this meeting below!

For our meeting in September, we will be looking at the so-called "Blatchford Controversies," a series of essays penned by Chesterton in The Clarion in 1904, an early entry for Chesterton into apologetical discourse, previewing his later career.

We will be using this special reading packet.  RSVP for this meeting below.

Join the Society on Sunday, August 17th at 6:00 PM at Ivy Hall as we discuss Chesterton's last detective, Mr. Pond.​

These often overlooked stories are the very last mysteries to come forth from Chesterton's pen, published posthumously and loaded with his characteristic paradox. As with everything Chesterton wrote, beneath the beguilingly simple surface there are deeper meanings and lessons to be found...

You can find this book through various used booksellers online, or else read the entire text via Project Gutenberg. 

RSVP for this meeting below! And bring a friend!

G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc credited the encyclical Rerum novarum of 1891 by Pope Leo XIII as the origin of their socio-economic philosophy known as Distributism (or Distributivism). 

Join us on Sunday, June 22 at 6:00 PM at Ivy Hall as we discuss this landmark encyclical as well as a few related things from Chesterton. We will read from a packet which you can download here.

"The Ethics of Elfland" is the fourth chapter of Chesterton's book, Orthodoxy. ​Some have argued that Orthodoxy is the most important book for understanding Chesterton's whole philosophy and worldview, and even that this chapter within that book represents, as it were, the distilled essence or heart of Chesterton's thought!

It's a bold claim, to be sure. Do you agree? Why or why not? But even more importantly, regardless of whether you agree, what is that essential philosophy propounded in this chapter? What are its core tenets? What can we learn from them?

Join us on May 18, 2025 at Ivy Hall at 6:30 PM to discuss this pivotal chapter from the great book! RSVP for this meeting beneath the break. Access the chapter or buy a copy of the book using the buttons below.

Sunday, April 13, 2025 - 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Ivy Hall - 6331 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19151

​Join the Society on Sunday, April 13th (Palm Sunday) for a discussion of G. K. Chesterton and T. S. Eliot. For this discussion we will be using a reading packet of some relevant essays from Chesterton and a sampling of Eliot's poetry from the contemporary period. RSVP below!