Celebrating 50 years 

Established in 1974, 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and its journal, The Chesterton Review. 

Imagine a world with leaders rooted in Chestertonian ideals

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A note from the Director of the Center for Catholic Studies

This year, we mark a wonderful occasion as the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and its journal The Chesterton Review celebrate their 50^th anniversary, and the 25^th anniversary of being a part of Seton Hall University. It is a moment to look both back and forward. We honor the Institute's founder, Father Ian Boyd, who poured so much of himself into the Institute and has now gone on to his eternal reward. The Institute's director, Gloria Garafulich-Grabois, continues to advance Father Boyd's vision with unfailing energy and dedication. Father Boyd recognized the gift that Chesterton was to the world with his unique combination of deeply grounded common sense, panoramic perspective, and resolute faith. The world is more in need of these gifts than ever, and so this year we will be creating opportunities to extend Chesterton's thought to an ever-wider audience. We encourage new and old friends to join us in this celebration and to rediscover the enduring wisdom and wit of G. K. Chesterton.

Patrick R. Manning, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Catholic Studies

A note from the Director of the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture

As we celebrate this important half-century milestone, we celebrate the life-long work of our founder, Father Ian Boyd, and we look to the Chestertonian community to help advance Father Boyd’s legacy and for the Institute to continue its valuable research and writing on important topics like global Christian traditions and Catholic social teaching for years to come.

Our work, with the support of Seton Hall University and the Chestertonian community, continues the work and the vision of Father Ian Boyd, of “imagining a world with leaders rooted in Chestertonian ideas.”

“The effect of the work of the Institute is cumulative; it builds on the   past, and we think in terms of the future. Our work is immensely relevant  for today and tomorrow, and for the future.”  — Father Ian Boyd, Founder and President Emeritus

G.K. Chesterton, the leader Christian writer, and multifaceted figure and the Chesterton Institute have a home at Seton Hall University, and through our extensive outreach, in the larger world. Please join us, as we continue to preserve and advance Chesterton’s and Father Boyd’s legacy for generations to come.

Gloria Garafulich-Grabois
Director, G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture

A note from the Editor of The Chesterton Review

Fifty-years of The Chesterton Review

This year marks the fiftieth birthday of The Chesterton Review – a cause for celebration, if ever there was one. Founded in 1974 in the centenary year of Chesterton’s birth, it has been the indispensable instrument for the revived worldwide interest in Chesterton that has been such a feature of the years ever since. Brilliantly edited for most of its half-century by the late Father Ian Boyd, the Review has been a vehicle for the best of contemporary Chesterton scholarship and a continuing inspiration for those wishing to understand the genius of an extraordinary man. It has flown the flag for Chesterton’s intellectual circle and for other writers in the Christian sacramental tradition, among them Hilaire Belloc, Maurice Baring, and Christopher Dawson. Father Boyd insisted on the highest standards for his journal and, thanks to his efforts and the efforts of those who helped him, The Chesterton Review has fulfilled his generous hopes. For fifty years, its pages have been marked by scrupulous scholarship, elegant writing, lively debate, beautiful pictures, and, behind them all, a certain largeness of soul that we might call Chestertonian. It is a towering achievement.

The Chesterton Review now looks forward to another fifty years. There is still a demand for what Chesterton once termed “transcendent common sense.” As it begins its second half-century, The Chesterton Review intends to supply it.

Dermot Quinn, D. Phil.
Professor of History, Seton Hall University
Editor, 'The Chesterton Review'

About the G.K. Chesterton Institute

• Our History »

  The G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture was founded by Father Ian Boyd in 1974 after attending a conference in England on the 50^th anniversary of Chesterton’s death. Upon returning to Canada, he founded the Institute and its journal.

  From 1974 to 1999, the Institute was based at St. Thomas More College in Saskatchewan, Canada, where Father Boyd was a member of the faculty of the English Department.

  In the Fall of 1999, the Institute moved to Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, at the invitation of Monsignor Robert Sheeran, then President of the University. The Institute is permanently based at Seton Hall.

  Father Boyd retired in July 2020 and was appointed President Emeritus of the Institute and Founding Editor of The Chesterton Review.

  In 2017, Gloria Garafulich-Grabois was appointed Director of the Institute, and upon Father Boyd’s retirement in 2020, Dr. Dermot Quinn was appointed Editor of The Chesterton Review.

  Learn more about the Institute and The Chesterton Review »

• Our Mission »

  The purpose of the Institute is to promote the thought of G. K. Chesterton and his circle and, more broadly, to explore the application of Chestertonian ideas to the contemporary world through lectures, conferences, seminars and publications.  

  The work of the Institute promotes the Catholic Intellectual Tradition which is at the center of the work of Seton Hall University.

• Our Journal, The Chesterton Review »

  The Chesterton Review, founded in 1974, is the quarterly journal of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture and has been widely praised for both its scholarship and the quality of its writing. It was founded to promote an interest in all aspects of Chesterton's life, work, art and ideas, including his Christian apologetics. Learn more »

Timeline of the Chesterton Institute’s Work Over Its First 50 Years

View the complete timeline of the Chesterton Institute and The Chesterton Review »

Celebrating 50 Years: G.K. Chesterton for Faith & Culture

The G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture invites you to view this short video about our work and mission during our first 50 years. We look forward to the future as we continue the vision of our Founder, Father Ian Boyd, CSB, “Imagining a world with leaders rooted in Chestertonian ideals.”

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