The Everlasting Man
I set out to read “The Everlasting Man” after skimming a reading list of books that C.S. Lewis considered to influence him the most. The Everlasting Man topped his list, and apparently prompted his conversion from atheism. As C.S. Lewis has been one of my favorite authors for most of my life, I had some high expectations to say the least.
G.K. Chesterton wrote The Everlasting Man with a generally broad audience in mind. His audience would be generally well versed in history (there were quite a few references to events or people that had me jumping for wikipedia), more open to christendom if not primarily within it’s walls already, lovers of eloquence and generally rational thinkers. Although we see the example of Lewis abandoning his atheism following the reading of The Everlasting Man, we have to remember the Lewis was very well read when it comes to Christian authors during his atheism (see surprised by joy). I would personally not recommend this to someone who is new to the concepts and history of Christianity and is still outside of the walls of the church, as it assumes to much. Also something to note is that this book was a sort of rebuttal to H.G. Wells’ “Outline of History”, and as such, takes a similar approach (though Chesterton would argue that wells had not “Outline” in his History).
The Everlasting Man has an interesting title that does not immediately lend well to explaining what the book is about. The book is broken up into two major sections: “On the Creature Called Man”, and “On the Man Called Christ”. If I had to classify this book, I would call it a Historical Narrative Apologetic. It’s aim is to prove the validity of Christianity, and the primary lens for which this is accomplished is through the big picture story of history. Chesterton argues that Christianity’s critics are too much within the walls of a Judeo-Christian worldview, and need to see anomaly known as Christianity through the vast picture of history. Keep in mind, this book was written over 100 years ago, in England, when Christendom had much deeper roots into the ethos of the culture.
The first and largest half is an overview of the history of man. He makes the case that prehistoric man is pre-historic, and as such, history related to him is speculation (The book is rich with this ironically obvious and clever statements). He makes the case that the beginning of the historical record is like a curtain rising on a play already in session. The historical records begin with massive cities with languages, economics, government, and art. Perhaps, he says, this reveals a civilization already old. He spends some time on the two great ancient empires, Babylon and Egypt, and then finishes off with Troy. He then spends the rest of the chapters on Rome in some sense or another, evaluating their mythologies, philosophers, and later their more heinous religion. Very clear distinctions are made between the more “innocent” and “pagan” mythologies that were not truly believed in a religious sense, and the more sinister infiltration of gods such as Moloch who was worshiped with child sacrifices. He highlights the contrast between the philosophy and the religion, the great distance that they held from each other and the interesting duality they kept in the mind of their adherents. He closes this section with a literary feat that “sets the stage” in a sense for the birth of Christ and the church.
The second half begins with a heavy focus on the perceived absurdity of Christianity. The sharp difference between Christianity and it’s surrounding ideologies, it’s unnatural and even irreverent founder and story, it’s grassroots-style growth and many other things that Chesterton believes should be more shocking to us (except that we are numb to it all by reason of being within Christendom). He goes through a brief survey showing the life of Christianity through the early church until now, but does not forget the frailties. In Chesterton’s word’s, “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
The idea of this book seems to be to show how perfectly yet absurdly Christianity fits for the world. It’s too perfect, yet too different from what we would of invented, to be true. He shows a brief look of the world outside of Christianity, which could be especially beneficial for those brought up in the Western world, influenced and raised by traditional Christendom. It is a defense of Christianity against would be atheists or agnostics who are within the Church. He answers many objections and criticisms that only exist in people who are inside the Constantinian geography.
When I first picked up this book, I had no clue what it would be about. By the second paragraph, I understood the Lewis connection. Chesterton’s writing style is excellent. He peppers his well-thought reasoning with dry irony that keeps the book moving swiftly. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half and have no substantial criticism of it apart from his occasional racial remarks (referring many times to “savages”, which seems like a broad term he uses for any undeveloped people group, as well as his remarks on jews.). The second half of the book felt scattered, although filled with great points and reasoning. The second half was definitely the weaker of the two. Chesterton takes for granted Roman Catholic presuppositions in his readership that are non-existent in me, creating a much more difficult read. I finished the first half of the book in a week, while the second half took me 4-5 weeks. I did slow down substantially as the reading moved from pure enjoyment to borderline monotony. In the end, I have to say, I was surprised at how this book was the nail in the coffin for Lewis. Perhaps due to my large cultural separation from Chesterton, he answered less questions for me than he did for Lewis. Do I recommend it? For a serious reader, perhaps. If you can plow through this book without much time taken out, it will be worth it. If you will spend the next 3-6 months on it, I would be much more hesitant to recommend it.
