Jogging with G.K. Chesterton: 65 Earthshaking Expeditions

by Robert Moore-Jumonville, Dale Ahlquist (Foreword)

Imagine having the brilliant journalist and prolific Christian author G.K. Chesterton as your daily jogging partner. This is precisely what Robert Moore-Jumonville did for over twelve years - he read LOTS of Chesterton's books and, during his daily jogging routine, reflected on them. The resulting essays appeared in Gilbert magazine, the monthly publication of the American G.K. Chesterton Society. JOGGING WITH G.K. CHESTERTON is a showcase for the merry mind of Chesterton. But Chesterton's lighthearted wit always runs side-by-side with his weighty wisdom. These 65 "earthshaking expeditions" will keep you smiling and thinking from start to finish. You'll be entertained, challenged, and spiritually uplifted as you take time to breathe the crisp morning air and contemplate the wonders of the world. "This is a delightfully improbable book in which Chesterton puts us through our spiritual and intellectual exercises with mind-jogging and body-jiggling brilliance. It will leave you breathless with the exhilaration and exhaustion of the Chestertonian chase." Joseph Pearce Author of Wisdom and A Life of G.K. Chesterton "G.K. Chesterton is one of the giants of the Christian intellectual tradition. If you want to learn about him, or learn more than you now know, I heartily recommend JOGGING WITH G.K. CHESTERTON. It will delight, entertain, instruct and challenge you." Richard J. Foster Author Celebration of Discipline and Sanctuary of the Soul Robert Moore-Jumonville is Professor of Christian Spirituality at Spring Arbor University in Michigan and the pastor of Pope United Methodist Church. He is the author of Hermeneutics of Historical Distance and co-authored (with Thom Slatterlee) two books of selected readings from G.K. Chesterton.

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2014

Reviews

[JoAnna]

As a runner myself, I had always been fond of the author’s regular column in Gilbert Magazine (reassuring to know that there are indeed other Chestertonians who like to move more than the large man himself). A while back I suddenly noticed it had been quite some time since I had seen it run in the magazine, and wondered how I could have missed its disappearance. I discovered that Moore-Jumonville had stopped writing his column several years ago, but I was glad to also discover that he had compiled his columns into a book (which saved me from leafing through years of back issues!).

I enjoyed his various reflections on running, especially those that mention the various landscapes he has jogged through, and it was interesting to read all the essays together. As a reader who was interested in a retrospective of the columns, I was somewhat disappointed that they had been arranged thematically rather than in chronological order, as it’s more difficult to see how the column developed over time and how the essays read in context (no date stamps). My main criticism is that the book was poorly edited in several places - e.g., there were multiple essays in which the author used “baklava” (the dessert) where he meant “balaclava” (the hat/face & neck covering used by many outdoor athletes in the winter). I don’t think even the most tongue-in-cheek writer would do this in 3 separate places in multiple essays. One would think that having published the essays once in a magazine and again in a book would catch all these sloppy errors.

But all in all, a fun addition to my Chesterton shelf.

[Tom Parlante]

I’m on page 55 and am getting bored with jumonville’s writing about his yogging. He is maki no good points about Chesterton but does not need to make references to his running. I find it distracting.