The Everlasting Man

Rating:
Summary: Polemical Comments on World History
Review: Chesterton explains his interesting and unique views on world history, mainly showing how world history has affected Christianity. I felt his views were more polemical and not so well founded on fact or research because he has only the barest of references to sources. Lots of interesting ideas, but I'm not sure how far I can trust his analysis because he doesn't put them in the context of the intellectual debate on the topics he surveys..

Rating:
Summary: Polemical Comments on World History
Review: Chesterton explains his interesting and unique views on world history, mainly showing how world history has affected Christianity. I felt his views were more polemical and not so well founded on fact or research. Lots of interesting ideas, but I'm not sure how far I can trust his analysis.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Roman Catholic View of History
Review: Chesterton is an old familiar name, and The Everlating Man, one of his better works. At first blush then there would appear to be no need, or at least a great need, to review this fine book. Yet, the Roman Catholic Church itself has fallen into error, and even heresy since Vatican II, and therefore 'The Everlasting Man' is a far greater book now than when it was published, because it presents the genuine viewpoint of Catholocism, not the 'feelgood' view so popular today. For those unfamiliar with the tumultuous controversy within the Catholic Church today, it must suffice that the Vatican quite literally abandoned the idea of objective truth as a doctrine, and replaced that doctrine with subjective truth. Everything is a point of view, we are told, because truth expands as man matures. Now, for Chesterton, a truth is a truth, and no comment on a truth, will stop a truth from remaining a truth. Therefore throughout the history of the Church, a doctrine, no matter how popular,no matter how well received, is always overthrown, when it is false. The magic of this book is reading of historical events with this point of view in the background. The rise of Islam and its defeat in Europe, the Arian heresy etc. But the important point of the book today is this: Though the Vatican II Church appears impregnantable, it will fail, and if history is a guide, it will fail rather quickly. For any Catholic who wishes to understand the genuine Catholic viewpoint, and therefore understand through implication the mistakes of Vatican II, this is the book to buy.

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Summary: A Great book in the Chesterton Tradition
Review: Chesterton is one of the great authors of our time and this book is no exception to the rule. Though I prefered the book St. Thomas Aquinas: the Dumb Ox, by him, The Everlasting Man is none-the-less a fantastic book.

As an answer to G.B. Shaw and H.G. Wells, Chesterton skillfully defends the Catholic and Christian against the modernist attacks which claim that Science and Religion are in conflict. Aquinas would be proud himself of Chersterton's use of Aristotle, who even Darwin claimed to be "the greatest biologist in history".

I highly recommend any Chesterton book to any reader interested in the history of philosophy, theology and man's origens. Also, you don't need a doctorate or a thesaurus to read Chesterton's witty writing.

Adam

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Summary: wait a minute....so you're saying it all MAKES SENSE?
Review: Chesterton sits down, props you on his lap, and spins a strange yarn here in The Everlasting Man, his Christian apologetic masterwork. This story that he tells sounds familiar, because we've heard of all the characters before, and we know in advance what actions they are responsible for. But for some reason, the history of the world according to Chesterton's pen sounds new and fresh all over again. His goal is to present the Incarnation of Christ as the centerpiece of all human history, and does so by painting that same history with colors to which we are not accustomed in our rationalist world. His greatest achievement here is to convincingly show that human history is a great adventure with a PURPOSE, and without Christianity this purpose can never be identified or even be real. If the world is a creation of an omnipotent God, as Chesterton thinks we all either explicitly or implicitly believe, then why is it so insane for us to think that this God may have some interest in the progress of His creation? Why must humanity necessarily function entirely outside the influence of its loving Creator? Chesterton shows that not only would the other possibility exist, but that it is actually the only possibility. We see the grand strokes of this God's paintbrush throughout the adventure of humanity, from the "caveman" to pagan society to Christ to Christianity to the so-called deaths of the Faith to the present day. The key of the Faith fits the lock of life. Of course it does, because the key and the lock have the same Author.
This is not a work only of philosophy and theology, but also of humor and creative ingenuity (and Chesterton would hesitate to give any credit to the former two if they lacked the latter two). It does contain expressions regarding ethnic groups for which we must substitute the modern polite equivalent in order to understand Chesterton; his language was different from ours is today and he should not be misconstrued. His scientific knowledge is limited even for his own time, and it shows when he treats scientific topics; however, his aims are not to prove or disprove scientific truths. So I think that if you sit down to read this book for the reasons that Chesterton would have you read it, you will find plenty of reasons to appreciate it. Christians should read this book for the faith-affirming truths it contains, and non-Christians should read it if for nothing else, for its humor. Staunch atheists and Church-haters should be very afraid of this book, and I encourage them to read it. They will not find many "arguments" to refute, only a beautiful affirmation of what Christians have known all along: that our world is not a random belch of nature, that human beings are religious beings not because of some grand joke but because they were made that way, and that God dares to disregard our own scattered and contrary wills and take a hand in our own salvation. When Chesterton gets done with this crazy world, it somehow all seems to make sense. Why is it so hard for people to allow themselves to see the beauty and hear the music that Chesterton sees and hears?

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Summary: Everlasting Brilliance!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Everlasting Brilliance!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Deep, deep, deep
Review: Chesterton, who was part of the group known as the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, among others), provides his apology for Christianity. Although some of his ideas are easy to grasp, much of the book is hard to get through and even incomprehendable at times. Perhaps this is because of the age of the book (it was published in the early 20th century) or maybe I should just read it when I am older?

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Summary: Classic work on the nature of man and the Man called Christ
Review: 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 shape. What you have to is see if it opens the door.

In reflecting on the key (the creed) Chesterton uses what he calls "the witness of the heretics." (a.k.a. dissenters) Each one tried to reshape the key. The church has constantly resisted that. As Chesterton brilliantly illustrates, only if the key retains its shape will it unlock the door.

In the final chapter Chesterton gives one of the most remarkable arguments for the truth of faith: the "five deaths" of the Church. We are not the first ones to live in an age which has concluded the church was moribund, passé. But it has experienced some remarkable resurrections like a phoenix rising from its own ashes. Chesterton analyzes five times when that happened and offers his reflection on what that means for us today.

I say "today" because even tho Everlasting Man was written almost 75 years ago, it addresses many concerns which are stil! l current: evolution, feminism, historicism, cultural relati! vism, economic and social determinism, etc. It is salutary to see that back in the 20's these issues were already "old stuff." TV programs and magazine articles meant to be bold or shocking all of a sudden seem hackneyed.

In addition to its other merits, this book has the value of being immensely entertaining. Not that it is an easy read. In fact it requires a lot of concentration. Chesterton sometimes piles paradox upon paradox in a way that one can feel dazzled and conclude he does not have substance behind his words. But that is a hasty conclusion. To read Chesterton requires a patience which is perhaps more difficult in our age. Yet to read him slowly and meditatively will bring great rewards.

Rating:
Summary: The Everlasting Chesterton!
Review: G. K. Chesterton was certainly one of the greatest apologists of the 20th century. I can't hope to surpass the excellent reviews already documented here, so I'll simply praise Chesterton and his work. His ability to document the truth of Christianity with his typical wit makes him a must-study for all aspiring apologists. The Everlasting Man should be required reading for all seminary students. Chesterton is proof that one doesn't need to abandon reason to be a Christian. "The Man at war with his time" had more sense than all the atheists of his time combined. All skeptical atheists should stay away from Chesterton, unless they wish to lose their beliefs. Chesterton's orthodoxy, elucidated with Heretics and the aptly- named Orthodoxy, will inspire many for centuries to come. As Gilbert himself said, "People always talk about orthodoxy as if it were something heavy, humdrum, and safe. In fact, there was never anything so perilous or exciting as orthodoxy." If you read Chesterton, don't come as a critic. The critics have already failed. Come as a seeker, and drink of his oasis of common sense in a desert of professional jargon and sheer craziness.