The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton (PDF)

Description

The Everlasting Man is a Christian apologetics book written by G. K. Chesterton. It is, to some extent, a deliberate rebuttal of H. G. Wells’ The Outline of History, disputing Wells’ portrayals of human life and civilization as a seamless development from animal life and of Jesus Christ as merely another charismatic figure. Chesterton detailed his own spiritual journey in Orthodoxy, but in this book he tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I think I read that this was the book that C.S. Lewis credits in helping him become Christian. So of course I wanted to read it. The book itself is pretty good quality. I didn’t get to into it because I bought them as presents for my nephews.I’d warn anyone thinking of buying this book that if you haven’t read much history, theology or philosophy this book is a very difficult read. I ended up listening to it on audible and most of it went over my head.I preferred Orthodoxy by Chesterton. It made some of the same great points but I could understand most of that book. Or I’d recommend starting with C.S. Lewis. I think his writing is geared more towards helping us simple minded folk understand our faith from an intellectual standpoint.Also you should know that Chesterton uses the n word in this book at least one time. I don’t think it was necessarily because he held racist views. But I can’t really judge what’s in another person’s heart.

⭐This book is amazing and it gives a good rationale for Christian Faith, the story of Christ and the future of the Faith.

⭐Is the course of history one that was an accident that, nonetheless, had to occur due to man developing the way he has? Has mankind moved from barbarism to civilization? In other words, are things getting better? And has history turned out how it has so far by accident, or by the hand of a Being Who guided it’s course?These are the questions that G. K. Chesterton attempted to answer in his extremely popular and influential book, The Everlasting Man. The results are mixed. This is not due to his not trying or being successful in his task, so much as the type of argumentation he makes, combined with science and history, to use a popular term, “marching on”.What I mean by this is that Chesterton’s method of persuasion depends a lot more on philosophical questioning, than on logic. Those who are familiar with the name of Chesterton due to his being cited by C. S. Lewis, or others, as influences on them, may be disappointed if they are expecting to see exercises in logic. Not to say that Chesterton does not use any logic or reason, but that they are mainly in support of philosophical arguments, than themselves the core of the argument. In other words, unlike Lewis, for example, he does not break down the elements of a concept to it’s basic components, and analyze them. Instead, he takes a position and defends it as is.Part of this, I think, was due to his heavy emphasis on Catholic theology and tradition. He wasn’t one for breaking down arguments or ideas to their root concepts and moving from there. Instead, he seemed to accept Catholic ideas and traditions, and arguing why they are true.This does work to an extent, in that sometimes one doesn’t want some overly cerebral argumentation, but may prefer a defense of an actual creed or ideals. The only thing that was unfortunate with the book, having nothing to do with individual taste, is the part of science and history that I alluded to earlier “marching on”.What I mean by that part is Chesterton’s arguments based on evolutionary science and the history of medieval times or before. Look, regardless of whether one believes in evolution, creation, or theistic evolution (most scientists believe this last one, no matter what some talking heads tell you), you will decidedly NOT find any answers or arguments to use in this debate from Man. Science has really made strides since then to the extent that all but the most general concepts Chesterton discusses are not current.On the history front, Chesterton accepts a lot of false information about the negative traits of the “dark ages”. In C. S. Lewis’ time, this popular notion of the ignorant dark ages was already well-known to be bunk, and today, it is all but dismissed by serious historians as ridiculous. But at the time of the book, the arguments against it were just starting to be made.The importance of the cautions in these two areas comes in because the author does use the bad information of the time in his philosophical musings. Taking them out doesn’t make his arguments fall apart, but it is useful to note them, and be extra-cautious when considering those parts of his thesis.Overall, this was a brilliant defense of the traditional Christian and Catholic creed, and useful for those who wish to better understand said creeds.Highly Recommended.

⭐My review is unrelated to the content of the book (because it’s soo good so far).But, I did want to give it four stars as the publication has a handful, not a ton, of typos…there has been a scary, recent trend of quickly-printed-and-shipped books on Amazon I’ve been hearing from a few friends

⭐Wonderful “words to live by”. I highly recommend this for anyone studying their Faith.

⭐I have trouble keeping my place while reading. All the words come too close to every border of the page.I can’t even comment on the content of the book, as I have not yet finished it.I also think it’s cheesy that this guy’s photo is the cover of the book.

⭐A note: If you order this EMP Books version, be prepared for many typos and missing punctuation. It’s everywhere…It took me a long time to wade through this book. There are a few reasons for this. First, my wife and I moved twice, I started a new job, and we’ve been prepping for a baby! In addition, though, this book was particularly difficult. Chesterton has his own style to begin with, but so much of it references not only his contemporaries and their ideas, but also H.G. Well’s “The Outline of History” specifically. If you are to take on this book, I recommend finding an annotated version. I think that would have been much more helpful for me.I’ve often found reading Chesterton to be like driving through the mountains on a foggy day. You can go miles slowly and blind to what’s going on around you, but once you reach a clearing the view is made that much more beautiful. Here are a few of my favorite clearings:”When the world goes wrong, it proves rather that the Church is right. The Church is justified, not because her children do not sin, but because they do.””An inventor can advance step by step in the construction of an aeroplane, even if he is only experimenting with sticks and scraps of metal in his own backyard. But he cannot watch the Missing Link evolving in his own backyard. If he has made a mistake in his calculations, the aeroplane will correct it by crashing to the ground. But if he has made a mistake about the arboreal habitat of his ancestor, he cannot see his arboreal ancestor falling off the tree.””It is hardly an adequate explanation of how a thing appeared for the first time to say it existed already.””Whatever else men have believed, they have all believed that there is something the matter with mankind. This sense of sin has made it impossible to be natural and have no clothes, just as it has made it impossible to be natural and have no laws.””If man cannot pray he is gagged; if he cannot kneel he is in irons.”And, of course, the famous:”A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

⭐The page layout makes this Amazon paperback edition of the Imprint all but impossible to read comfortably. Whoever decided the layout obviously isn’t much of a reader. The font size is far too small for such a wide page. The lines are also far too close together. Come on Amazon: look at what other publishers are doing and get it right. I’m very glad you are offering these old texts, and I’ve put up with your poor productions before, but this time it’s going back as totally unsuitable.

⭐Mithology, Philosophy or Religion?Not quite any of the above.The very knowledgeable author starts from the cave man and follows the strangest of mythologies as well as dark phylosophies and obscure cults to argue how odd and unique ‘Christendom’ really is.This was by far the hardest book I’ve read. Mainly because how the author explains (or not) his arguments and the way they are written. A lot of statements without explanation. Heavy use of ‘deep’ vocabulary and technical Anthropology terms.I guess it’s the old scholar fashion!First and latter chapters Are the ones I’ve found more useful specially the last one and the ‘conclusion’ where Chesterton put out together his ideas nicely.

⭐Written partly as a reply to H.G. Wells’ Outline of History, Chesterton’s Everlasting Man argues for the essential difference of man within nature, and of Christianity within the history of religions. Chesterton draws especially on his knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean world — Near Eastern, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Roman — to draw attention to the radical novelty of the Christian “story” — that the mysterious creator God (whom all humans, and only humans, have ever sought in their myths and philosophies) became a particular, historical person. This fact and its many-sided consequences is the central fact of history, around which any “outline” must be drawn. Chesterton’s paradoxical, pointed style may be difficult or diffuse or idiosyncratic or brilliant (you choose!) But the ideas and argument are fundamentally well grounded and insightful — antidote to the facile caricatures of religion and Christianity that are even more rife now than in Chesterton’s own time. Why read Dawkins or Peterson: read Chesterton!

⭐I’m a few chapters in at the time of writing, and so far quite like the book. Chesterton writes an interesting and witty account of his often quite novel insights into things. The main problem with the book is related to this particular version – missing punctuation, rogue words and misspellings can be found on the majority of pages of the book. I can only put it down to a poor production job on the part of the publisher.However, this is still fairly good value for a hardcover so you might decide the errors won’t bug you too much and it’s worth saving a few quid.

⭐Worth sticking too as Chesterton has a way with words that explores the beauty and relevance of the Christian faith

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