Rev. Ian Boyd, C.S.B., president of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture at Seton Hall University, will give a lecture entitled “G. K. Chesterton at Notre Dame” at 7:30 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 4) in Room 140 of DeBartolo Hall at the University of Notre Dame.
A Chesterton scholar and professor of English at Seton Hall, Father Boyd is the author of “The Novels of G.K. Chesterton” and the editor of The Chesterton Review.
Father Boyd’s lecture will celebrate the 80th anniversary of G. K. Chesterton’s visit to Notre Dame.
Invited to Notre Dame by then-president Rev. Charles O’Donnell, C.S.C., the English novelist, cultural critic, historian, playwright and poet G. K. Chesterton was perhaps the world’s most famous Catholic convert in 1930. Arriving on campus with his wife on Oct. 4, he stayed for six weeks, giving a series of 36 lectures in Washington Hall on the literature and history of the Victorian period. Notre Dame students took to him immediately, and the average attendance at each of the lectures was 500 people.
Chesterton’s arrival nearly coincided with the dedication of Notre Dame Stadium and its dedicatory football game with Navy. Chesterton was among the spectators at the 26-2 Notre Dame victory, and wrote the poem “The Arena” to mark the occasion.
At the conclusion of his lectures, Chesterton received an honorary doctoral degree from the University.
Father Boyd’s lecture is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Center for Liturgy, the Center for Ethics and Culture, Notre Dame Vision, and the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism.