Ahlquist hosts the EWTN Global Catholic Network television show "G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense." He co-founded the Chesterton Academy, a private Catholic high school near Minneapolis, Minn.
He is himself a convert to the Catholic faith.
"I was an Evangelical before I started reading Chesterton," he said. "Before I knew it, he just sucked me into the Church."
Ahlquist is in favor of teaching Chesterton in high schools and colleges because the writer is "one of the great treasures of English literature" and "one of the great wordsmiths."
Chesterton's works are "great exercises in thinking that our students would have a great benefit from."
Ahlquist said his own book aims to change how people "think about thinking." Chesterton's writings present a "complete and cohesive wisdom" that can be useful in the classroom as examples of "interdisciplinary, integrated thinking."
Ahlquist's book also aims to write about Chesterton the way he wrote about other people like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Charles Dickens.
"When he writes about someone, it's not a standard biography," Ahlquist said. "He will get certain ideas and certain things that that character is associated with, and then use it as a launching pad to talk about bigger things and greater truths."
"I try to write a Chestertonian book about Chesterton, where I use his ideas and his words and things about his life to point to larger truths."
Ahlquist also noted the importance of Chesterton's sense of humor.
"It's great to be able to laugh. People want to laugh. Chesterton makes you laugh."
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Kevin J. Jones is a senior staff writer with Catholic News Agency. He was a recipient of a 2014 Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship.