With elegance and clarity, Wolfgang Smith leads the reader, step by step, to the realization that the specifically ''modern'' world is based intellectually, not indeed upon scientific facts, but ultimately on nothing more substantial than a syndrome of Promethean myths. And this ''opening'' enables him to recover and reaffirm the deep metaphysical insights that have come down to us through the teachings of Christianity: having broken the grip of scientistic presuppositions, the author succeeds in bringing to view universal truths which had long been obscured.