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Title: The Everlasting Man: by Gilbert Keith Chesterton ISBN: 0-8371-6636-5 Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint Pub. Date: 04 February, 1974 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $87.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.54 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Holy Curmudgeon of the Catholic Church
Comment: I've reread this book after ten years and found it just as astonishing a work as I did the first time around. Chesterton is a consummate apologist, combining a sincere reverence for his subject matter with a devastating sense of humour and a true generalist's erudition. He has a wonderful ability of taking accepted secular dogmas, turning them completely on their heads, and in the process making Catholic dogmas, rejected for their lack of congruence with modernism, look sensible and enlightened. This polemical mastery is one of the enduring qualities of "The Everlasting Man".
Although much of the first part of the book may seem dated (it consists mostly of a friendly attack on H.G. Wells anti-Christian "Outline of History") Chesterton's points are still well taken. Many of his musings on evolution can be put to use today against the adherents of creationism as well as the scientifically arrogant. Although he takes 50 pages to say it (he IS a bit of a windbag, but his blustery style and curmudgeonly wit makes it enjoyable all the while), his point about the anthropology of his day is that it is inherently incapable of explaining the irreconcilable chasm between man and the critters he may have materially evolved from. And this difference is constituted by Mind, or by man's soul, as manifested primarily (for Chesterton) in art and religion. One could add science. His illustrations on this point are hilarious. He draws the silly images of cows writing sonatas, sheep practising an elaborate form of ancestor worship, and dogs in solemn procession wearing canine mitres and swinging censers smouldering with dog-appealing scents. All to show the gap that separates us from the animals.
When he moves to specifically Christian apologetics, Chesterton presents a theory of history that, though it bears an obvious resemblance to Augustine's philosophy of history, is remarkably unique and dramatically compelling. The chapter on the war of the gods and demons will assure that you never again think of the Punic Wars in the same way. It also puts to rest much nonsensical multi-culturalist cant.
And indeed this constant struggle, in history, between two supernatural forces permeates Chesterton's sense of history; another similarity to Augustine. However, he is not by any means a Manichean. He is constantly pointing out the marvels of the salvation story and falls prostrate in stricken awe at the very idea of the Incarnation being a fact.
And this is the point of the book; namely, to reinvigorate the awesomeness of that Idea and, more importantly, that Fact, by trying to tell it anew, and by asserting and demonstrating that nothing in modernity or before has ever been able to contradict it, nor to dissuade the millions who have pinned their hope to and derived their inspiration from it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Must read for an understanding of Christian perspective
Comment: The Everlasting Man should be read by anyone who would like an understanding of the Christian worldview. The central point here is that the Incarnation is the central event of human history; it allows us to joyously celebrate the good of creation and nature, as God has blessed matter with His very being. For Chesterton, true, vigorous Christianity is simultaneously incarnational (embodied) and spiritual, historical and eternal.
This book also displays Chesterton as a clever stylist with a penchant for aphorism and the unexpected turn of phrase. His wit and clarity are a model for English prose.
Rating: 3
Summary: Polemical Comments on World History
Comment: 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.
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Title: Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton, Ignatius Pr ISBN: 0898705525 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: What's Wrong With the World by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 0898704898 Publisher: Ignatius Press Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G.K. CHESTERTON ISBN: 0385090021 Publisher: Image Books Pub. Date: 15 January, 1974 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: The Man Who Was Thursday (20Th-Century Classics) by G. K. Chesterton, Kingsley Amis ISBN: 0140183884 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Heretics by G. K. Chesterton ISBN: 1842329898 Publisher: House of Stratus Inc. Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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