The Everlasting Man - A History and Philosophy of Humanity

By G.K. Chesterton

Book Overview

One of the greatest works of Christian apologetics, The Everlasting Man is G. K. Chesterton's profound exploration of humanity, history, and the meaning of civilization. First published in 1925, this influential work was written as a response to popular theories that portrayed human beings as merely another stage in the evolution of the animal world. Chesterton presents a sweeping examination of mankind's unique place in history and argues for the significance of human creativity, imagination, and spiritual awareness.

Divided into two major sections, The Everlasting Man traces the story of humanity from prehistoric times through the rise of Christianity. With his characteristic wit, vivid storytelling, and deep knowledge of history and philosophy, Chesterton examines ancient civilizations, mythology, religion, and the cultural forces that shaped the modern world. His engaging style transforms complex ideas into a compelling intellectual journey.

A landmark of twentieth-century religious thought, The Everlasting Man remains one of Chesterton's most widely read and discussed books. Whether approached as theology, philosophy, cultural history, or literary criticism, it continues to challenge readers to consider the mysteries of human nature and the enduring questions at the heart of civilization.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 160459246X
• ISBN13: 9781604592467
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Wilder Publications
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Must read for an understanding of Christian perspective

The Everlasting Man should be read by anyone who would like an understanding of the Christian worldview. The central point here is that the Incarnation is the central event of human history; it allows us to joyously celebrate the good of creation and nature, as God has blessed matter with His very being. For Chesterton, true, vigorous Christianity is simultaneously incarnational (embodied) and spiritual, historical and eternal. This book also displays Chesterton as a clever stylist with a penchant for aphorism and the unexpected turn of phrase. His wit and clarity are a model for English prose.

Everlasting Brilliance!

Chesterton traces the development of religion from cave man to Christian in this comprehensive and compelling work of Catholic apologetics. He begins by convincingly (if somewhat repetitively) taking apart the theory of evolution, demonstrating that the evolutionist's coldly secular, sociological explanations of prehistoric man's religious development have no basis in fact. He next turns to the pagan world with a mesmerizing analysis of the supreme conflict between the Romans, who represented the best of paganism, and the Carthaginians, who represented the worst. A victorious Carthage would have plunged humanity into an abyss of devil-worshipping inhumanity; Rome, by fighting against all odds for an ennobling vision of man, family and society, established a civilization human enough to receive Jesus Christ. Upon turning to our Lord, Chesterton elegantly dismantles a variety of arguments against His divinity, showing how all interpretations of Jesus that are less than the Gospels are, in the end, less believable and less rational than the Gospels. The Church is then compared and contrasted to Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, and Buddhism. In Chesterton's view, Islam is "militant but no church", and these other belief systems are essentially pagan mythologies; the critical point is none of these systems rises to the level of Christianity in terms of spiritual relevance and truth. He then delves deep into the Eastern mind, rooted in a changeless, cavernous past, contrasting it to Western mind, profoundly and utterly recast by the relatively recent Incarnation. His analysis culminates with magnificent insights on Christianity as a story: philosophies are static and circular, ending where they begin, whereas Christianity stands alone as a philosophy that moves, initially with the journey of Christ, and then with the spiritual journeys that we ourselves must make. Thus Christianity alone can inspire us and teach us how to move forward and upward, spiritually and in all other ways. It is a greater philosophy than all other philosophies for this reason, and it is a greater story than other stories because it is true. Great ideas and historical insights abound in this work. I can't imagine anyone, regardless of his religion or non-religion, reading this and not being moved somewhere, somehow.

One of the best books of the 20th Century.

This is a book that everyone ought to read two or three times at least. It is a crime that such nonsense as Conversations With God, or better but still relatively shallow introductions to comparative religion like Religions of Man, seem to be better known. Here you will find a description of Christianity and its relation to other faiths strong and fine as aged wine. I don't know of anyone who writes with this much class in the modern world. Having ordered the book for our college library, I tried not to mark it too much, but found myself putting ink dots on paragraph after paragraph of material I wanted to quote. He rambles a bit, but I think there is more wisdom, humor, and insight in a single page of this book than in whole volumes that are better known in our days. Imagine if, after reading David Barry and laughing your head off, you wanted to go out and kiss a blade of grass or be amazed by the water running in the river instead of (say) looking up at the sky to make sure there aren't any mackerel about to fall on you. G.K.Chesterton makes his readers laugh themselves sane. And sanity is a rare and wonderful thing in the modern world. Chesterton's archeology and contemporary references are a bit dated, of course. But even there, what goes around often comes around. Chesterton leads off with a story about Grant Allen, author of a piece of heresy of that time called "Evolution of the Idea of God." More recently Karen Armstrong wrote a book with an almost identical title and thesis, "History of God," and was greeted in the press as a bold thinker. Chesterton kindly and elegantly refuted her error, and those of many other modern skeptics, decades before they were born. Admirers of Bishop Spong in particular should read this book. Chesterton was not a scholar of comparative religions, of course, and he may have oversimplified a few things, but I think got the big things in true proportion better than anyone.The plan of the book is simple. In the first half, Chesterton describes man, particularly in his religious aspect. In particular, he explains four universal elements of human religion: mythology, philosophy, demonism, and an awareness of God that one finds in almost every culture around the world. The tendency in the modern world is to ignore the last two elements when they occur outside of Western culture. But I have found in my own studies of Asian cultures and religions that Chesterton's description of human religion fit the facts extremely well. The second half of the book is about Jesus and the movement he founded. I like what he says about Jesus best, and wish he had spent more time on that and proportionally less on European culture. A few of his racial or cultural assumptions do not come across well in our age. It is worth remembering how the face of Christianity has changed over the hundred years since this book was published. Then Christianity was almost exclusively a Wester

Classic work on the nature of man and the Man called Christ

Everlasting Man had a decisive role in one of the most important conversions of the this century. C.S. Lewis described reading it in 1925 when he was still an atheist: Then I read Chesterton's Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense . . . I already thought Chesterton the most sensible man alive "apart from his Christianity." Now, I veritably believe, I thought that Christianity itself was very sensible "apart from its Christianity." (Surprised by Joy p.223) When asked what Christian writers had helped him, Lewis remarked in 1963, six months before he died, "The contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton's The Everlasting Man." (God in the Dock p.260.) The book has two parts. The first is titled "On the Creature called Man." It uses the available evidence from paleontology, an! cient history, comparative religions, etc. but brings it together in remarkable ways. The questions he asks (and to some extent, answers) are the ones we continue to brood over: How is man different from other animals? Why are there so many religions? How do we make some sense out of our long and tumultuous human history? The questions raised in the first part receive a more definitive answer in the second: "On the Man called Christ." It is not that Jesus gives a step by step response to each of the queries. Rather he begins by throwing us into an even more perplexing quandary. Chesterton asks what it would really be like to read the Gospel free of all preconceptions. The effect would not be "gentle Jesus, meek and mild," but rather someone who jars our sensibilities. As Chesterton points out, the most honest response might be "stark staring incredulity." Did he really do that? How could he say something so preposterous? Chesterton's genius ! is to help us face the paradox, the seeming contradiction. ! Really there are only two possible responses to the riddle of the Gospel. Either Jesus is a blashemer (as Caiphas charged) or he is who he claimed to be--and the apostles professed him to be. In that claim Jesus is unique. Mohamet did not suggest equality with Allah. Moses was never placed on a par with Yahweh. Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius never made assertions of divinity. Those who did were megolomaniacs like Caligula or the unfortunate people we confine to insane asylums. Yet few consider that Jesus was that kind of person. Chesterton, like C.S. Lewis after him, helps us confront the incredible implications of this greatest of all paradoxes. He then asks the next logical question. Is the Church a continuation of Jesus or a breaking away from him? The first might seem hard to accept, but the second involves even greater difficulties. As a help to making the correct choice, Chesterton asks us to reflect on the analogy of a key. Its truth depends on whether it fits the lock! . You won't get very far analyzing its seemingly odd sh