The Everlasting Man

The Everlasting Man

The Everlasting Man is a 1925 book by G.K. Chesterton, a British author and philosopher. It is a work of Christian apologetics, which seeks to explain and defend the Christian faith. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Chesterton examines the history of religion and philosophy, and argues that Christianity is the only religion that is both reasonable and satisfying. He argues that Christianity is the only religion that can explain the existence of evil and suffering in the world, and that it is the only religion that offers a hope of eternal life. In the second part, Chesterton examines the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, and argues that Jesus is the only person who can truly be called the Son of God. He argues that Jesus is the only person who can truly bring salvation to mankind, and that his teachings are the only way to true happiness and fulfillment. In the third part, Chesterton examines the history of the Church, and argues that the Church is the only institution that can truly bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. He argues that the Church is the only institution that can truly bring about justice and peace in the world. Overall, The Everlasting Man is an excellent work of Christian apologetics, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the Christian faith.

By G.K. Chesterton · First published 1925 · Genre: Philosophical Fiction, Religious Fiction, Historical Fiction · 19 chapters · 101,853 words

First lines

On re-reading these pages I feel that I have tried in many places and with many words, to say something that might be said in one word. In a sense this study is meant to be superficial. That is, it is not meant as a study of the things that need to be studied. It is rather a reminder of the things that are seen so quickly that they are forgotten almost as quickly. Its moral, in a manner of speaking, is that first thoughts are best; so a flash might reveal a landscape; with the Eiffel Tower or the Matterhorn standing up in it as they would never stand up again in the light of common day. I ended the book with an image of everlasting lightning; in a very different sense, alas, this little flash has lasted only too long. But the method has also certain practical disadvantages upon which I think it well to add these two notes. It may seem to simplify too much and to ignore out of ignorance. I feel this especially in the passage about the prehistoric pictures; which is not concerned with all that the learned may learn from prehistoric pictures, but with the single point of what anyone could learn from there being any prehistoric pictures at all. I am conscious that this attempt to express it in terms of innocence may exaggerate even my own ignorance. Without any pretence of scientific research or information, I should be sorry to have it thought that I knew no more than what was needed, in that passage, of the states into which primitive humanity has been divided. I am aware, of course, that the story is elaborately stratified; and that there were many such stages before the Cro-Magnon or any peoples with whom we associate such pictures. Indeed recent studies about the Neanderthal and other races rather tend to repeat the moral that is here most relevant. The notion noted in these pages of something necessarily slow or late in the development of religion, will gain little indeed from these later revelations about the precursors of the reindeer picture-maker. The learned appear to hold that, whether the reindeer picture could be religious or not, the people that lived before it were religious already; burying their dead with the significant signs of mystery and hope. This obviously brings us back to the same argument; an argument that is not approached by any measurement of the earlier man's skull. It is little use here to compare the head of the man with the head of the monkey, if it certainly never came into the head of the monkey to bury another monkey with nuts in his grave to help him towards a heavenly monkey house. Talking of skulls, I am also aware of the story of the Cro-Magnon skull that was much larger and finer than a modern skull. It is a very funny story; because an eminent evolutionist, awakening to a somewhat belated caution, protested against anything being inferred from one specimen. It is the duty of a solitary skull to prove that our fathers were our inferiors. Any solitary skull presuming to prove that they were superior is felt to be suffering from swelled head.

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The Everlasting Man is listed on Textopian as an essay by G.K. Chesterton, dated 1925 CE.

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philosophy · theology · Christianity · history · humanity · existence · faith · religion · culture · myth · sociology · morality

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