Chesterton's Tavern: A Great Writer's Thoughts on Life and Things of Wisdom

by Kevin Belmonte

If we sat down with Chesterton in a tavern today, he would say very much the same things he said one hundred years ago.

At a time when intellectuals and politicians were all telling the world that science had advanced us beyond Christianity, an enormously fat man in a cape with a walking stick laughed at them and refuted them with brilliant prose and witty one-liners.

Chesterton’s Tavern imagines what Chesterton would talk about if he were at ease in an English pub (which in fact is something he did enjoy doing). Kevin Belmonte shows that Chesterton’s insights are as true today as they were then. Chesterton was equally comfortable talking about fiction, myths, fairy tales, history, science, politics, and theology, because he saw them all as part of the strange world God had given us.

In Christ, everything holds together, and so we should not be surprised at the strangeness of the world or the strangeness of the Christian faith. So sit back and let Chesterton regale you with his wisdom. You will come away wiser.

Genres: Biography, Theology, Christianity, Philosophy, Nonfiction

118 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2022

About the author

KEVIN BELMONTE holds a B.A. in English from Gordon College, an M.A. in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a second Master's Degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine. He has twice been a Finalist for the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography, and in 2003, his book, William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity, won that award. For five years, his biography of William Wilberforce has been taught as part of a course on leadership and character formation at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. On several occasions, he has served as a script consultant for the BBC, and also for the PBS documentary, The Better Hour. For six years, he was the lead script and historical consultant for the critically acclaimed film, Amazing Grace. Kevin resides in a seaside village in Maine with his wife, Kelly, and their seven-year-old son, Sam.

Reviews

[Zack Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great introduction to Chesterton and after reading I’m left wanting to both read more of Chesterton and of the authors he found to be great. A good book that I’ll come back to for book recommendations.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of very good Chestersnippets, though I was not a huge fan of the authorial hype-building before each citation. I don’t need you to tell me how wise, pithy, or otherwise amazing the passage you’re about to give me is: just give it to me and let me find out.

[Caleb M. Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chesterton has a lot of interesting things to say, and I enjoyed his takes on culture, philosophy, and apologetics. I wish this book had been a bit less of a series of block quotes and more what it promised to be—a series of fictional conversations with Chesterton at a tavern—but I wasn't as dissatisfied as I assumed I'd be once I reached the end of the book. The afterword helped tie together the threads the author had been weaving, and it did come together in the end.

[Go2therock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written years ago, as refreshingly relevant for today.

[Michael Collings]

This was a good book in that it contains mostly excerpts from Chesterton’s writings. Belmonte Is an inconspicuous guide through these topical chapters. The “tavern lecture” format was not pulled off satisfactorily in my opinion. One can feel just as much or more like he is in Chesterton’s Tavern, simply by reading Chesterton’s works on their own. It might’ve been a more satisfying experience had the author reconstructed Chesterton’s writings and quotations into a kind of dialogue between himself and fictional or historical characters, similar to Humphrey Carpenter’s treatment in a chapter of his book on the Inklings. But, this is a good introduction to Chesterton’s thoughts if you are deciding whether or not to crack open the actual works from which they were taken.

[Luke Waters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is good for essentially one purpose. That is convicting the reader who's not yet read Chestertons works to go down to their local (don't support amazon) blackmarket book store and buying all of Chstertons works. Suffice it to say, my appetite has been wetted. Also, you can now look smart as you send Chesterton quotes to your basic evangelical friends.

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was OK, but I guess I'd rather just read Chesterton than somebody else's writing about Chesterton. I saw a few other reviews that noted this was meant to be more of an intro to GKC, so I'm not the right target audience.

Ben needs to stop and look up pronunciations of unfamiliar words, particularly foreign ones.

[John Rimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. I especially liked his discussions of progress, R.L. Stevenson, R. Crusoe, and J. Bunyan.

This is one of those books that not only makes you want to read more of the principle subject, but also introduces you to about a dozen others to get acquainted with. In particular, I'd like to read some things by St. Francis of Assisi and George MacDonald after hearing the high regard they held from Chesterton.

Listened to this one three time through.

[Josiah Rex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with rating this book, as the actual content is excellent. However, the format of the tavern conversations felt poorly executed and added little to nothing to the narrative.

[Jake Litwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audio version.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually undertake reading using audio books because they usually cost more than I can spend. However, I listened to this one via Canon+. What a wonderful biographical styled book. It's not so much a biography as it is exactly what the title says...what Chesterton thought about things. But I feel like I know this person a lot better than I did. I mostly knew him as being the author of the Father Brown mysteries. The reader was pleasant to listen to and easy to understand, which is always a worry for me. I'm glad I took the time to listen to this today. If you're looking for a non-fiction book on a person who seems to have been quite interesting and eccentric, this might be a good fit for you.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Chesterton was anything like Martin Luther, and he certainly was, we might expect Chesterton to have a sort of table talk like Luther had. This little book imagines Chesterton in a tavern of sorts, giving thoughts and ramblings on life and Lord taken from his written works.

[Deax · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to G.K.C.

[Rusten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable little introduction to Chesterton.

[Caleb Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting thoughts that make me want to dig into Chesterton more, but the organization and writing of this book seemed a bit scattered and chaotic.

[Aden Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to read more Chesterton.

[Caleb Levi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know little of Chesterton but this book was a good introduction.

[Seth Goodale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this very much. The author is a big fan of Chesterton.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting concept and good intro to Chesterton's thoughts. It looks at some of Chesterton's articles and essays that the average reader probably wouldn't otherwise engage with

[Sean Kewley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belmonte writes a good primer about what to expect reading Chesterton and where to find it. Neat read.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay read but you are better off reading Chesterton yourself.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A smattering of the sage.