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.Of course many philosophical and theological questions remain open, but they do not invalidate the quest. There can be no definitive proof, but there are countless pointers to the fact that the end of human life is not to go into the dark. Since this hope reinforces the need to tackle the very real darkness of the present-day world, the final chapter goes beyond personal spirituality to explore individual and communal ways of bringing light to contemporary life.JAN KERKHOFS is Emeritus Professor of Religion in the Catholic University of Louvain.