In the tradition of James Frazer, Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Thierry Hentsch retells, with new urgency and a keen critical eye, the story of the West” that shapes our perception of the world. Yet, the story of the West” does not exist. Only a reading of its most seminal textsfrom Ulysses to Hamlet, from the Torah to the Gospels, from Plato to Descartescan bring it alive.
His tale turns on a startling discovery: The Christian message of immortality is conditional. To overcome deaththe touchstone of the human conditionthe believer must accept the Truth of salvation. Western civilization, by replacing God with technoscience, offers the universal promise that salvation may now be gained on earth. Yet, as a condition, it would impose its own absolute morality on the world. Truth or Death: the Biblical injunction is ours as well.