Other editions of book The New Jerusalem

In 1919, the famous British pundit and polymath traveled to Palestine to write this philosophical travelogue. He fell in love with Jerusalem, and in the book is quite accepting of the religious and cultural values of the people inhabiting the area. Throughout these controversial passages, he explores the differences between the three major religions. Even more interesting is his analysis of conflicts between Jews and Muslims, which is now considered prophetic.

During Christmas of 1919, G.K. Chesterton, left his home in Beaconsfield, and traveled backward through time to the place where Christmas began. His 1920 book, The New Jerusalem, is a philosophical travelogue of his journey across Europe, across the desert, to Palestine.He says in fell in love with Jerusalem at first sight. He found there the whole history of the world, the place where east truly meets west. Interestingly enough, he arrived during an utterly rare event in that land: snow. Chesterton thought of it as “the triumph of Christmas.”

It was in the season of Christmas that I came out of my little garden in that "field of the beeches" between the Chilterns and the Thames, and began to walk backwards through history to the place from which Christmas came. For it is often necessary to walk backwards, as a man on the wrong road goes back to a sign-post to find the right road. The modern man is more like a traveller who has forgotten the name of his destination, and has to go back whence he came, even to find out where he is going. That the world has lost its way few will now deny; and it did seem to me that I found at last a sort of sign-post, of a singular and significant shape, and saw for a moment in my mind the true map of the modern wanderings; but whether I shall be able to say anything of what I saw, this story must show.

Chesterton's classic 'philosophical travelogue' details his thoughts and conclusions during a visit to the Middle East in 1920. With his characteristic bluntness - leavened as always with humour and wit - Chesterton describes the day to day life of the people, and of the diverse tensions existing between Islam, Christianity and Judaism - the three great religions that lay claim to this place as Holy Ground. A personal and passionate view of the area almost three decades before the founding of the State of Israel, 'The New Jerusalem' is required reading for all those hoping to understand the complexity of the region and the continuing conflict in today's Holy Land

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.