G. K. Chesterton's 1925 sweeping counter-history of the human story, written as a direct response to H. G. Wells's materialist Outline of History (1920). The book is in two parts — 'On the Creature Called Man' and 'On the Man Called Christ' — arguing first that humanity is categorically different from the rest of the animal kingdom (the cave paintings, the religious instinct), and second that Christ stands categorically apart from other religious founders. The argument is conducted in Chesterton's characteristic mode: paradox, humour, and rapid historical sweep rather than scholarly apparatus.
The thesis in Part I is that if man is dispassionately viewed as simply another animal, one is forced to conclude he is a bizarrely unusual animal. Part II extends the logic: if Christ is viewed as simply another human leader, one is forced to conclude he was a bizarrely unusual leader, whose followers founded an equally unusual religion. C. S. Lewis named the book one of those that moved him from atheism toward Christianity; in Surprised by Joy he writes that reading it he "saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense."
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.
Part II, Chapter V, "The Escape from Paganism"
First lines
There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place; and I tried to trace such a journey in a story I once wrote.
Contents
Introduction: The Plan of This Book
Part I — I. The Man in the Cave
Part I — II. Professors and Prehistoric Men
Part I — III. The Antiquity of Civilisation
Part I — IV. God and Comparative Religion
Part I — V. Man and Mythologies
Part I — VI. The Demons and the Philosophers
Part I — VII. The War of the Gods and Demons
Part I — VIII. The End of the World
Part II — I. The God in the Cave
Part II — II. The Riddles of the Gospel
Part II — III. The Strangest Story in the World
Part II — IV. The Witness of the Heretics
Part II — V. The Escape from Paganism
Part II — VI. The Five Deaths of the Faith
Conclusion: The Summary of This Book
Reception
One of the most influential apologetic works of the 20th century. C. S. Lewis named it one of the books that moved him from atheism toward Christianity (in Surprised by Joy he calls it the book that 'baptised my intellect'); through Lewis it has shaped subsequent Anglo-American Christian apologetics decisively. Within Catholic intellectual circles it sits alongside Orthodoxy as the core Chesterton text. Academic historians of religion have been less impressed by the historical method — the sweep is bought at the cost of detail and the comparative-religion framework is dated — but the book's standing as an apologetic and as a piece of Chestertonian prose is independent of its historical claims.
Frequently asked
What is The Everlasting Man about?
Chesterton's 1925 counter-history of humanity in two parts. Part I argues that man is categorically distinct from all other animals—most visibly in cave paintings and the universal religious instinct. Part II argues that Christ stands apart from all other historical religious figures, and that Christianity is not simply another mythology or evolutionary stage of religion.
What did C. S. Lewis say about The Everlasting Man?
Lewis credited it with completing his move toward Christianity. In Surprised by Joy (1955) he wrote that reading it he "saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense." In a 1950 letter he called it "the best popular apologetic I know."
Is The Everlasting Man a rebuttal to H. G. Wells?
Yes. It was written explicitly in response to Wells's The Outline of History (1920), which portrayed mankind as simply another animal and Jesus as merely another charismatic figure. Chesterton accepts Wells's method of reasoning from the facts but reaches opposite conclusions.