New Book: The Everlasting Man by GK Chesterton

Published in 1925, The Everlasting Man is G.K. Chesterton’s rebuttal to H.G. Wells’ The Outline of History, an evolutionary overview of the history of mankind. Chesterton sought to counter Wells’ argument by writing a history of mankind with Christ in the center. As such, The Everlasting Man depicts the spiritual progression of humanity. Chesterton writes, “I do not believe that the past is most truly pictured as a thing in which humanity merely fades away into nature, or civilization merely fades away into barbarism, or religion fades away into mythology, or our own religion fades away into the religions of the world. In short I do not believe that the best way to produce an outline of history is to rub out the lines.”

C.S. Lewis was greatly inspired by this work; indeed, in the way that George MacDonald’s works “baptized” his imagination, The Everlasting Man baptized his intellect. In 1947, Lewis wrote a letter to Rhonda Bodle in which he said, “the best popular defense of the full Christian position I know is G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man.”

About G.K. Chesterton:

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874 – June 14, 1936) was a man of many faces. At face value, an author; but in the folds, a philosopher; a literary, art, and social critic; a Catholic theologian; a writer of mysteries; a historian; a debater; a poet; an apologist. He wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, around 200 short stories, 4,000 essays, and several plays. He is often referred to as the “prince of paradox,” thanks to his propensity to take popular sayings, proverbs, and allegories and turn them on their heads. G.K. Chesterton has influenced many great men in his life, notably J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His greatest works include his Father Brown detective stories, novel The Man Who Was Thursday, and theological works Heretics and Orthodoxy.