Light appears in all cultures and all times as the goal of the religious and philosophical quest. This book sees light, a kindly light, as the horizon of human existence, despite the dark places of the world and the dark void of death. The testimony of thinkers and mystics, poets and artists, from earliest times to the present day, is drawn on here to illustrate the longing for light. The Bible continues to play an important part, but literature from the whole of Western culture, non-Christian, Christian and secular, from ancient Egypt to the novels of Dostoievsky and Solzhenitsyn, also provides important material.
