Professor
Department of History
Contact Information:
Adam Schwartz, Ph.D.
134 Christendom Dr.
Front Royal, VA 22630
540.551.9202
ajmschwartz@yahoo.com
Bio:
Adam Schwartz received his PhD from Northwestern University (1996). He has taught at Christendom College since 2000. His scholarly interests are in the Catholic Literary Revival and the Inklings. He has written extensively on these topics, most notably in The Third Spring: G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones (The Catholic University of America Press, 2005, 2012). He is also a founding member of the advisory board of the David Jones Research Center, a member of the Editorial Board of Seven: The Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center, and an Associate of Renascence: Essays on Literature and Ethics, Spirituality, and Religion.
Education
B.A., Marquette University
M.A., Northwestern University
Ph.D., Northwestern University
Classes Taught
- History of Western Civilization II
- History of Western Civilization III
- History of Totalitarianism
- The Catholic Literary Revival
- Modern British History
- The Inklings
- Historiography
Hobbies
Reading and writing
Areas of Expertise
Twentieth Century Christian thought
Selected Scholarship
- Book
The Third Spring: G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005, cloth; 2012, paper.
- Articles
“Small is British: Subsidiarity and Modern British Catholic Social Critics.” In New Insights into Literature and Catholicism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. Paul Rowen and David Torevell, 1-20. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021.
“A Standing Temptation to the Intelligentsia: The Catholic Literary Revival in Twentieth-Century Britain.” In Literature and Catholicism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. David Torevell, 20-34. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021.
“What He Saw in America: G. K. Chesterton’s View of the United States.” Front Porch Republic, 15 May 2020. www.frontporchrepublic.com/2020/05/what-he-saw-in-america-g-k-chestertons-view-of-the-united-states/
“‘Getting into History’: The Great War and David Jones’s Memory.” Religion & Literature 49 (Spring 2017): 71-81.
“Conceiving a Culture of Life in a Century of Bones: G. K. Chesterton and Malcolm Muggeridge as Social Critics.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 11 (Spring 2008): 50-76.
“A ‘Catholic Fellow-Traveler’?: Graham Greene and Communism.” Explorations: The Twentieth Century 10 (2004): 229-53.
“G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man.” In Encyclopedia of Catholic Literature, ed. Mary Reichardt, 1: 105-14. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
“Vanity Fair’s Thanatos Syndrome: Malcolm Muggeridge, Modern Capitalism and the Culture of Death.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 16 (Dec. 2003): 29-34.
“‘Like a Birthmark’: Graham Greene’s Catholicism.” Faith & Reason 28 (Autumn & Winter 2003): 345-90.
“Confronting the ‘Totalitarian Antichrist’: Christopher Dawson and Totalitarianism.” The Catholic Historical Review 89 (July 2003): 464-88.
“What They Saw in America: G. K. Chesterton’s and Christopher Dawson’s Views of the United States.” Faith & Reason28 (Spring 2003): 23-52. Also in Christopher Dawson: Historian for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Gleaves Whitney. Wilmington: ISI Books, (forthcoming).
“From Granite to Grass: Graham Greene, Travel, and ‘The Primitive’.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 55 (Fall 2002): 25-45.
“Swords of Honor: The Revival of Orthodox Christianity in Twentieth-Century Britain.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 4 (Winter 2001): 11-33.
“The Mind of a Maker: An Introduction to the Thought of Dorothy L. Sayers Through Her Letters.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 13 (May 2000): 28-38.
“‘I Thought the Church and I Wanted the Same Thing’: Opposition to Twentieth-Century Liturgical Change in the Thought of Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson, and David Jones.” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 1 (Fall 1998): 36-65.
“Theologies of History in G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and in David Jones’s The Anathemata.” The Chesterton Review 23 (February & May 1997): 65-83.
“G.K.C.’s Methodical Madness: Sanity and Social Control in Chesterton.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 49 (Fall 1996): 23-40.
“Embers of Truth: The Struggle for Faith in Chesterton’s ‘The Ballad of the White Horse’ and Eliot’s ‘Ash Wednesday’.” Touchstone: A Journal of Ecumenical Orthodoxy 9 (Summer 1996): 33-5.
“Christianity’s Dangerous Edge: ‘Belief,’ ‘Faith,’ and Doubt in Graham Greene’s Writing.” Thematica: Historical Research and Review 3 (May 1996): 2-29.
“‘It is Good to Be Here’: G. K. Chesterton’s The Thing and the Thought of Graham Greene.” Faith & Reason 21 (Spring/Summer 1995): 101-19.
“The Grand Dissent: Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.” Introduction to an edition of Burke’s Reflections that I also edited. (Houston: Communican, 1993), pp. 3-37.
“‘An Inexhaustible Fount’: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Social Contract.” Introduction to The Social Contract, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. (Houston: Communican, 1992), pp. 1-20.
“In Search of Chesterton: A Historiographical Essay.” Missions & Ministry. (forthcoming). Also to be published in G. K. Chesterton and the Art of Witness, ed. David Mills. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co. (forthcoming).
- Reviews, Review Articles, and Short Articles
“A Singular Universal.” The University Bookman. Spring 2021 (6 March 2021). www.kirkcenter.org/reviews/a-singular-universal/ (Review of Richard Greene, The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene.)
“‘These Global Days’.” The University Bookman. Fall 2019 (6 October 2019). www.kirkcenter.org/reviews/these-global-days/ (Review of David Jones’s The Grail Mass and Other Works, ed. Thomas Goldpaugh and Jamie Callison.)
“The Presence of the Counterkingdom.” The University Bookman. Fall 2018 (7 October 2018). www.kirkcenter.org/reviews/the-presence-of-the-counterkingdom/ (Review of Alan Jacobs, The Year of Our Lord 1943.)
“The Artist and His Epoch.” The University Bookman. Summer 2018 (12 August 2018). www.kirkcenter.org/reviews/the-artist-and-his-epoch/ (Review of David Jones on Religion, Politics, and Culture: Unpublished Prose, ed. Thomas Berenato, Anne Price-Owen, and Kathleen Henderson Staudt.)
“G. K. Chesterton’s Jewish Problem.” Seven: The Journal of the Marion E. Wade Center 34 (2017): 1-8. www.wheaton.edu/media/wade-center/files/publications/vii/Vol_34_VII-Online_Edition_2017.pdf (Review of Ann Farmer, Chesterton and the Jews).
“The Lost Great Modernist.” The University Bookman. Summer 2017 (6 August 2017). www.kirkcenter.org/bookman/article/the-lost-great-modernist/ (Review of Thomas Dilworth, David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet).
Review of Michael Brennan, Graham Greene: Poliitcal Writer. British Catholic History 33 (May 2017): 494-96.
“The Many Dimensions of Charles Williams.” The University Bookman Spring 2016 (27 March 2016). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/the-many-dimensions-of-charles-williams/ (Review of Grevel Lindop, Charles Williams: The Third Inkling ).
“A Circle of Instigators.” The University Bookman Winter 2016 (24 January 2016). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/a-cricle-of-instigators/ (Review of Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings ).
“The Holiness of Hobbitry.” The University Bookman Spring 2015 (24 May 2015). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/the-holiness-of-hobbitry/ (Review of Craig Berenthal, Tolkien’s Sacramental Vision ).
“In Communion with All the Past.” The University Bookman Winter 2015 (1 March 2015). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/in-communion-with-all-the-past/ (Review of Thomas Dilworth, David Jones in the Great War).
Review of Jay Corrin, Catholic Progressives in England After Vatican II. Journal of British Studies 53 (October 2014): 1081-1082.
Review of Tom Villis, British Catholics and Fascism. Journal of British Studies 53 (January 2014): 263-64.
“The Hopeless Hope of G. K. Chesterton.” Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review 30 (2013): 105-110. (Review of Ralph Wood, Chesterton: The Nightmare Goodness of God.)
“Tolkien and the Great Tale.” The University Bookman Winter 2013 (24 February 2013). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/tolkien-and-the-great-tale/ (Review of Devin Brown, The Christian World of The Hobbit.).
Review of Michael Brennan, Graham Greene : Fictions, Faith, and Authorship. Christianity & Literature 61 (Summer 2012) : 691-93.
“Signs of Contradiction.” The University Bookman Spring 2012 (17 June 2012). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/signs-of-contradiction (Review of Richard Griffiths, The Pen and the Cross: Catholicism and English Literature, 1850-2000.) Reprinted as “New Study Marred by Old Clichés about Preconciliar Catholic Writers.” Crisis Magazine, 9 August 2012. www.crisismagazine.com/2012/new-study- marred-by-old-clichés-about-preconciliar-catholic-writers
“An Everlasting Man of Letters.” The University Bookman Fall 2011 (30 October 2011). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/an-everlasting-man-of-letters/ (Review of Ian Ker, G. K. Chesterton: A Biography. ) Reprinted in Crisis Magazine, 13 September 2012. www.crisismagazine.com/2012/an-everlasting-man-of-letters
“Significance and Missteps.” The University Bookman Winter 2011 (20 March 2011). www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/significance-missteps-chesterton/ (Review of William Oddie, Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy. ) Reprinted as “For Chesterton, as for Newman, to Become Perfect Meant to Change Often.” Crisis Magazine, 17 August 2012. www.crisismagazine.com/2012/for-chesterton-as-for-newman-to-become-perfect-meant-to-change-often
Review of James Lothian, The Making and Unmaking of the English Catholic Intellectual Community, 1910-1950. The Catholic Historical Review 96 (October 2010): 852-53.
Review of Graham Greene : A Life in Letters, ed. Richard Greene. Christianity & Literature 59 (Spring 2010): 566-69.
“Ronald Knox,” in Religion in Past and Present 7: 227. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2010. (Also in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th ed., 4: 1466-67. Tubigen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2001.)
Review of Paul Robichaud, Making the Past Present: David Jones, the Middle Ages, and Modernism. Religion & Literature 41 (Spring 2009): 193-96.
“Hope and History: The Virtue of Hope in an Age of Anxiety.” Faith & Reason 33 (Annual 2008): 163-70.
Review of Lee Oser, The Return of Christian Humanism: Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien, and the Romance of History and Alison Milbank, Chesterton and Tolkien as Thelogians: The Fantasy of the Real. The Chesterton Review 34 (Fall/Winter 2008): 611-23.
Review of Elizabeth Whittingham, The Evolution of Tolkien’s Mythology: A Study of the History of Middle-earth. The Saint Austin Review 8 (November/December 2008): 36-37.
“A Rare Specimen.” The University Bookman 45 (Fall 2007): 37-40. (Review of Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis.)
“David Jones.” The Chesterton Review 33 (Fall/Winter 2007): 761-63.
Review of Bernard Bergonzi, A Study in Greene: Graham Greene and the Art of the Novel. Christianity & Literature 57 (Autumn 2007): 151-54.
Review of Mark Knight, Chesterton and Evil. Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review 23 (2006): 95-98.
“An Interview with Dr. Adam Schwartz.” The Catholic Servant 13 (September 2006): 1, 5.
“‘The Greatest Man of our Time’: John Paul II as a Historical Figure.” Faith & Reason 31 (Spring 2006): 57-62.
Review of Mark Bosco, Graham Greene’s Catholic Imagination. Religion & Literature 38 (Spring 2006): 139-42.
Review of Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, Volume III. Christianity & Literature 54 (Spring 2005): 461-64.
Review of Jay P. Corrin, Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy. The Chesterton Review 29 (Spring & Summer 2003): 174-82.
“The Grateful Heart of G. K. Chesterton.” Faith & Reason 28 (Spring 2003): 123-33. (Review article of Basil Howe: A Story of Young Love, by G. K. Chesterton, ed. Denis Conlon; The Gift Of Wonder: The Many Sides of G. K. Chesterton, ed. Dale Ahlquist; and Garry Wills, Chesterton, rev. ed.)
Review of David Downing, The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis’s Journey to Faith. Christianity & Literature 52 (Autumn 2002): 107-10.
“The Road to Rome: Chesterton’s Spiritual Journey.” Christian History 21:3 (August 2002): 11-17.
Review of The Spirit of the Oxford Movement and “Newman’s Place in History,” by Christopher Dawson; Introduced by Peter Nockles; with a biographical note by Christina Scott. Faith & Reason 26 (Summer 2001): 216-20.
Review of Cates Baldridge, Graham Greene’s Fictions: The Virtues of Extremity. Christianity and Literature 50 (Autumn 2000): 173-75.
Review of The Pligrim’s Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness, ed. David Mills. Religion & Literature 31 (Fall 1999): 128-30.
Review of Patrick Curry, Defending Middle Earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity. Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review 16 (1999): 112-15.
Review of Patrick Allitt, Catholic Converts: British and American Intellectuals Turn to Rome. Religion & Literature 31 (Summer 1999): 121-24.
“Old Western Man.” The University Bookman 39 (Spring 1999): 31-36. (Review of James Como, Branches to Heaven: The Geniuses of C. S. Lewis; and The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia, ed. Jeffrey Schultz and John West.)
“Sitting Still With Christopher Dawson.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 12 (March/April 1999): 46-49.
Review of Stephen Carter, The Culture of Disbelief. The Chesterton Review 24 (November 1998): 504-7.
“David Jones and Distributism.” The Chesterton Review 24 (November 1998): 557-59.
Review of Doris Myers, C. S. Lewis in Context, and Peter Milward, A Challenge to C. S. Lewis. The Chesterton Review24 (August 1998): 364-69.
“The Muggeridge Conundrum.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 11 (March/April 1998): 37-40.
Review of C. S. Lewis: Lightbearer in the Shadowlands: The Evangelistic Vision of C. S. Lewis, ed. Angus J. L. Menuge. The Lamp-Post: A Literary Review of Lewis Studies 21 (Autumn 1997): 26-31.
“Introduction to G. K. Chesterton’s ‘Christmas and Sport’.” Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review 14 (1997): 93.
Review of The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, ed. Charles Huttar and Peter Schakel. Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review 14 (1997): 116-19.
Review of Joseph Pearce, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton. Religion & Literature 29 (Summer 1997): 99-101.
“Missing Mr. Chesterton.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 10 (Spring 1997): 31-33.
Review of Kathleen Henderson Staudt, At the Turn of a Civilization: David Jones and Modern Poetics. The Chesterton Review 23 (February & May 1997): 227-31.
“Proclaiming Peace, Preparing for War.” Midwest Chesterton News 9 (10 March 1997): 8.
Review of The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, ed. Charles Huttar and Peter Schakel. Christianity & Literature 46 (Autumn 1996): 94-96.
Review of Permanent Things, ed. Andrew Tadie and Michael Macdonald. The Lamp-Post: A Literary Review of Lewis Studies 20 (Autumn 1996): 31-35. (Review of the six essays dealing with C. S. Lewis’s work.)
“And Furthermore…” Midwest Chesterton News 9 (10 Nov. 1996): 9-10.
Review of Permanent Things, ed. Andrew Tadie and Michael Macdonald. Generally Speaking: The Newsletter of the American Chesterton Society 1 (September 1996): 7-8, 10, 12, 15. (Review of the six essays dealing with G. K. Chesterton’s work.)
“A Deeply Protestant Lewis?” Touchstone: A Journal of Ecumenical Orthodoxy 9 (Summer 1996): 37-38.
“Getting to the Heart of the Man Within: A Reader’s Guide to Graham Greene.” Prepared for the Milwaukee Chamber Theater. March, 1996.
Review of Michael Coren, The Man Who Created Narnia: The Story of C. S. Lewis. The Lamp-Post: A Literary Review of Lewis Studies 19 (Summer 1995): 23-27.
“The Dawson-Speaight Correspondence.” The Chesterton Review 20 (February & May 1995): 280-81.
“Whose Church? Which Agenda?” March, 1995. (Pamphlet response to James Schall, “Agenda for the Church.” Both distributed by the Midwest Chesterton Society.)
“The (Scottish) Play’s The Thing: Witches, Jesuits, and GKC.” Midwest Chesterton News 7 (10 Jan. 1995): 3-4. (Review of Garry Wills, Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare’s Macbeth).
“M.C.N.’s Debate on Ecumenism Continues.” Midwest Chesterton News 7 (10 Dec. 1994): 8-9.
“Requiscat in Pace, Russell Kirk.” Midwest Chesterton News 7 (10 Nov. 1994): 1.
Review of Meredith Veldman, Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain. The Lamp-Post: A Literary Review of Lewis Studies 18 (September 1994): 28-32.
“What I Saw in England.” Midwest Chesterton News 6 (10 Feb. 1994): 14-15.
“Daily C. S. Lewis Readings and a Suggestion for G.K.C.” Midwest Chesterton News 6 (10 October 1993): 5.
“Chesterton, Greene and ‘The Thing’ : G.K.C.’ s Neglected Wonder of a Book.” Midwest Chesterton News 5 (10 March 1993): 4-5.
“Sex and the Church.” The New York Review of Books 40 (11 Feb. 1993): 45.
Review of Deborah Vlock, Dickens, Novel Reading and the Victorian Popular Theater. The European Legacy(forthcoming).
- Papers Delivered
“A Stern Necessity: John Henry Newman’s Conversion to Roman Catholicism.” Christendom College lectures on Newman’s Canonization. 29 October 2019. Front Royal, VA.
“New Directions in Jones Studies.” David Jones Research Seminar. Washington Adventist University. 7-8 June 2018.
“‘Getting into History’: The Great War and David Jones’s Memory.” David Jones: Dialogues With the Past. University of York. 21-23 July 2016.
“G. K. Chesterton, David Jones, and the Catholic Vision of History.” Christendom College Summer Institute. 13 July 2013. Front Royal, VA.
“Signs of Contradiction for a Century of Bones: G. K. Chesterton and Malcolm Muggeridge as Social Critics.” G. K. Chesterton Conference. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, 15-17 June 2006.
Chair of panel discussion, “Chesterton and the Inklings.” Conducted at G. K. Chesterton Conference. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, 15-17 June 2006.
“Malcolm Muggeridge and the Culture of Death.” The Triumph of the Cross Conference. Asheville, NC, 9-10 Sept. 2005.
“Vanity Fair’s Thanatos Syndrome: Malcolm Muggeridge, Modern Capitalism and the Culture of Death.” Muggeridge Rediscovered: Malcolm Muggeridge Centenary Conference. Wheaton, IL, 22-23 May 2003.
“G.K.C.’s Jewish Problem: Anti-Semitism in Chesterton’s Writing and Responses to It.” Midwest Conference on British Studies. Chicago, IL, October 22-23, 1999.
“J. R. R. Tolkien’s Catholic Background.” Mythcon XXX. Sponsored by the Mythopoeic Society, Milwaukee, WI, July 30, 1999.
“G. K. Chesterton, David Jones, and Mythology.” Mythcon XXIX. Sponsored by the Mythopoeic Society, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, 15-20 July 1998.
“What They Saw in America: G. K. Chesterton and Christopher Dawson’s Views of the United States.” Midwest Chesterton Conference. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, 11-13 June 1998. In Christopher Dawson: Historian for the Twenty-first Century, ed. Gleaves Whitney (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2002, forthcoming).
“G.K.C.’s Jewish Problem: Anti-Semitism in Chesterton’s Writing and Responses to It.” Mideast Conference on Christianity and Literature. Dayton, OH, October 18-19, 1996.
Co-Chair of Panel Discussion, “Chesterton the Historian and Chesterton for Historians.” Conducted at the Midwest Chesterton Conference. Milwaukee, WI, June 28, 1996.
“G.K.C.’s Methodical Madness: Sanity and Social Control in Chesterton.” Midwest Chesterton Conference. Milwaukee, WI, June 8-10, 1995.
“Hanging on the ‘Axile Tree’: Encounters with Mythology in the Theologies of History of G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and David Jones’s The Anathemata.“ “Christianity’s Encounter With ‘The Other.'” Sponsored by the Conference on Christianity and Literature, Santa Clara Univ., Santa Clara, CA, May 5-6, 1995.
Co-Chair of panel discussion, “Chesterton as Historian and Biographer”. Conducted at the Midwest Chesterton Conference. Milwaukee, WI, June, 1994.
“Hanging on the Axile Tree: Theologies of History in G. K. Chesterton and David Jones.” Midwest Chesterton Conference. Milwaukee, WI, June, 1994.
“‘It is Good to Be Here’: G. K. Chesterton’s The Thing and the Thought of Graham Greene.” Midwest Chesterton Conference. Milwaukee, WI , June, 1993.
Research In Progress/Planned
Book-length study of Roman Catholic social criticism in the work of G. K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Christopher Dawson and David Jones.
Book-length study of Dorothy L. Sayers as a social critic.