Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is pleased to welcome renowned author and speaker Joseph Pearce as the St. John Henry Newman Chair in Catholic Studies for the 2022–2023 academic year.
“It is truly an honor,” Pearce said of his appointment. “I can think of no other faithful Catholic college with which I’d rather be associated.” In his capacity as Visiting Chair, Joseph Pearce will be leading discussions on the craft of writing for both the Sophomore and Junior Writing Tutorials. He will also lead discussions of Lewis, Tolkien, and other writers for an upper-class tutorial entitled Literature and the Moral Imagination.
In addition, Pearce will be offering an eight-part public lecture series entitled “The History of Christendom.” Based on his forthcoming book, The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: History in Three Dimensions, the lectures begin with the birth of Christ and move into the present day. “The talks,” noted Pearce, “will lead participants through the tapestry of the centuries, in which the goodness of the saints, the wickedness of the worldly, and the beauty of great art form the interwoven threads.”
“It is truly an honor. I can think of no other faithful Catholic college with which I’d rather be associated.”
–Joseph Pearce
“The College community is delighted to have Joseph Pearce with us for the academic year,” remarked Paul Jackson, Vice President of Advancement. “Joseph has been a longtime friend of the College. His expertise and knowledge of Shakespeare, Chesterton, Lewis, Tolkien, and so many others, coupled with his wit, good nature, and humor, will no doubt make this academic year enriching and enjoyable for students and faculty alike.”
The students, who have already had the opportunity to discuss poetry and autobiographical writing with Mr. Pearce, agree. “It is such a blessing to have Mr. Pearce teaching our class,” said sophomore Margaret Six ’25. “His experience and wealth of knowledge are invaluable to us as writing students.” For Buddy Saunders ’25, “Mr. Pearce brings a Chestertonian spirit to our Writing Tutorial. His educational outlook is tempered with mirth—something I appreciate immensely.” Gabriella Braaten ’25 concurred: “Mr. Pearce exudes joy and a willingness to share his wisdom freely.”
In addition to serving as Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute, Pearce is the editor of the St. Austin Review, series editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions, and senior contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. His most recent work is Faith of Our Fathers: A History of True England (Ignatius Press, 2022).
Joseph Pearce is the third scholar to be appointed Visiting Chair. In 2020, Dr. Robert Royal, Dante scholar and editor of The Catholic Thing, served as the inaugural recipient. Last year’s Visiting Chair was held by Dr. Michael Dominic Taylor, who was awarded an Expanded Reason Award from the Ratzinger Foundation and the Francisco de Vitoria University (Madrid) for his book, The Foundations of Nature: Metaphysics of Gift for an Integral Ecological Ethic. Dr. Taylor now serves as Dean of Students and Teaching Fellow at the College.
“The College is grateful to its benefactor for creating an endowment that allows us to support visiting scholars of various ranks and fields . . . I am thrilled that our old friend will be spending a year at Thomas More College, sharing decades of experience and allowing us to accompany him on new literary adventures.”
–President Fahey
The endowed Chair is made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor. “The College is grateful to its benefactor for creating an endowment that allows us to support visiting scholars of various ranks and fields,” said President Fahey. “For a generation, Joseph Pearce has represented in speech and writing what we call ‘the Catholic Literary Revival.’ Those champion figures, like Chesterton and Belloc, have been augmented through Joseph’s other works on Shakespeare, Wilde, Roy Campbell, Schumacher, and Solzhenitsyn. Would the current informed faithful even know about such men and their ideas without Joseph Pearce? Would they understand them with such sympathy? I am thrilled that our old friend will be spending a year sharing decades of experience and allowing us to join him on new literary adventures.”
For more information on “The History of Christendom” lecture series, please visit www.thomasmorecollege.edu/christendom.
For further reading:
Dr. Robert Royal Appointed St. John Henry Newman Visiting Chair in Catholic Studies
