The Everlasting Man is a collection of essays by G. K. Chesterton on human history and religion. It contrasts pagan myths with Christianity and argues that Christ is not merely another myth but a unique figure. It is worth listening to for its witty, paradoxical prose and broad historical reflections.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE EVERLASTING MAN
THE
EVERLASTING MAN
BY
G. K. CHESTERTON
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LIMITED LONDON
Made and Printed in Great Britain
T. and A. Constable Ltd., Printers, Edinburgh
PREFATORY NOTE
This book needs a preliminary note that its scope be not misunderstood. The view suggested is historical rather than theological, and does not deal directly with a religious change which has been the chief event of my own life; and about which I am already writing a more purely controversial volume. It is impossible, I hope, for any Catholic to write any book on any subject, above all this subject, without showing that he is a Catholic; but this study is not specially concerned with the differences between a Catholic and a Protestant.
Much of it is devoted to many sorts of Pagans rather than any sort of
Christians; and its thesis is that those who say that Christ stands side by side with similar myths, and his religion side by side with similar religions, are only repeating a very stale formula contradicted by a very striking fact. To suggest this I have not needed to go much beyond matters known to us all; I make no claim to learning; and have to depend for some things, as has rather become the fashion, on those who are more learned. As I have more than once differed from Mr. H. G. Wells in his view of history, it is the more right that I should here congratulate him on the courage and constructive imagination
Readnara
