The Everlasting Man

2010 Reprint of 1925 edition. The Everlasting Man is a two-part history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity, by G. K. Chesterton. Published in 1925, it is to some extent a deliberate rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, which embraced the evolutionary origins of humanity and denied the divinity of Jesus. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, in this book he tries to illustrate the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization. C. S. Lewis credited The Everlasting Man with "baptising" his intellect, much as George MacDonald's writings had baptised his imagination, so as to make him more than half-converted well before he could bring himself to embrace Christianity. The book was also cited in a list of 10 books that "most shaped his vocational attitude and philosophy of life".