The Everlasting Man Chapter Summary & Analysis | Introduction: On The Creature Called Man

Introduction: On The Creature Called Man Summary and Analysis

Oftentimes, a thing can only be appreciated by those who are very close to it and those who are very far from it. People who are familiar, but not intimate, with it, often bring with them a variety of biases that make any objective judgment impossible. A person who is very close to it naturally understands it well; a person who is very far from it sees with, so to speak, a fresh set of eyes capable of seeing it for what it is. Such is the case with Christianity. While Christians understand its doctrines, non-Christians who live in largely Christian societies, like most Western countries, will generally have a kind of unwarranted contempt for the religion, a contempt which they will not have for, say, an Eastern religion with which they are not familiar. The same relationship holds for man. Man's uniqueness among the rest of nature has been...
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