"The story told here concerns the efforts of Catholic authors in the 20th century to describe a world that is both disenchanted and yet teeming with haunting clues about the presence of God and the miracle of grace. These writers turned to metaphors of nature--the charm of a garden and the setting of the sun--to signal both enchantment and a world darkened by its loss. And they turn to the second language of religious images--Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, a chapel's sanctuary lamp--to cast a spell that might penetrate the cloud of disenchantment that envelopes our world"--