G. C. Jeffers

I’m almost finished with Chesterton‘s The Everlasting Man. And I have not read a more beautiful book. It’s Chesterton, so it’s witty and quirky and impatient and poetic. But it’s more. It delves down, beyond conscious thought. It brings forth truths that cannot be proven by appeals to logic or rationality, but are themselves artistic. I have found myself floundering as I attempt to re-create Chesterton’s argument for other people. Suffice it to say, it is the best, and most unique, Christian apologetic.

In this book, Chesterton tells the story of humanity from beginning until now. His is not a political history or a religious history or a scientific history, nor really a theological history. It is most similar to a history of thought, but even that is a shadow of what Chesterton accomplishes. This book, not really even a history, retells the human story with the assumption that truly is a story, replete with characters and a climax and and a resolution.

This book is excellent. And, whatever your theological or religious predilections, is worth the read if, for nothing else, then the power of his vision and and the beauty of his prose.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter “The Strangest Story Ever Told.”