Editor’s Note: Brady Stiller ’20, ’21 MNA was valedictorian of the Notre Dame Class of 2020. On March 18, 2024, Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire published his book, Your Life is a Story: G.K. Chesterton and the Paradox of Freedom, which is a revision of his senior thesis at Notre Dame.
Name: Brady Stiller
Class Year: 2020 B.S., 2021 MNA
Residence Hall: Dunne Hall
Majors: Biological Sciences, Theology
Student Activities: McLachlan Lab, Campus Ministry, London Study Abroad, God & The Good Life
Local Notre Dame clubs: Notre Dame Club of New Orleans & Notre Dame Club of Fairfield County
What was your path to Notre Dame and were there any significant moments that influenced your decision to attend?
My decision to go to Notre Dame and to write a book on G.K. Chesterton have something in common — neither was planned. As a Catholic, the concept that God has the best things in store for those who love him was not a foreign one to me. It is strange now to admit that for most of my life, I knew very little about Notre Dame, especially after an unforgettable five years at an academic institution that did much more than shape my mind. It was during my senior year in high school that I discovered Notre Dame as a preeminent Catholic university that could be within my reach, and if it weren’t for some divine guidance in a pivotal time of life, it’s safe to say I wouldn’t have had my Notre Dame experience — from living in a Dunne Hall “six man” for three years to representing my class as valedictorian amidst a global pandemic.
It happened in the same way that I came to write a book on G.K. Chesterton during my senior year at Notre Dame, recently published in March 2024 through Word on Fire. Funny enough, I had turned down the opportunity to write an optional senior thesis, only to find myself struck by an idea for a thesis months beyond the proposal deadline. I still remember that moment I experienced the wind of inspiration, leaving me with a subtle but certain conviction that I needed to write a book. Eleven months later, 20 books read, and over 200 pages written, I knew I had produced a manuscript that went far beyond the 35-60 page thesis requirement and needed to be published as a book. Four years later and Word on Fire is now marketing my book around the world. God knew what he was doing.
Tell us more about your G.K. Chesterton research and recent book publication. What was the writing process like and how has your work influenced your own spirituality and faith life?
My recent book publication on my favorite author, G.K. Chesterton, has a rich backstory. For one, it was a book I never planned to write, but once I had the idea, I knew I had to. The research process brought me on great adventures. During my study abroad semester in England, I made every effort to visit sites associated with G.K. Chesterton — his home and grave in Beaconsfield, pubs he would frequent on Fleet Street in London, and a special collection of Chesterton manuscripts and other items, which I would end up visiting a year later to research for my senior thesis. In doing so, I was the first person to research the materials of the G.K. Chesterton Collection at its new home at [Notre Dame London].
While the book is considerably scholarly, being sourced in part from my senior thesis and incorporating research from over 20 books and three archives, it is also deeply personal as well as practical. The book dives into G.K. Chesterton’s worldview, which is to view one’s life as a thrilling story that is meant to find its place in God’s grand story for humanity. This is no doubt a religious claim, but to say that life is a story is equally a definitive philosophical claim, suggesting that we have the freedom to subjectively direct the course of the story while also having the guidance of objective values, knowing that God has the best story for each of us to live into.
It has been a humbling experience to see the enthusiasm of those who have read my book, discovering the same things I did when I first read Chesterton’s works, leading me to write this book in the first place.
