Truth or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Narrative Tradition

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 texts-from Ulysses to Hamlet, from the Torah to the Gospels, from Plato to Descartes-can bring it alive. His tale turns on a startling discovery: The Christian message of immortality is conditional. To overcome death-the touchstone of the human condition-the 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.