This book examines the Western tradition of spirituality in the of questions raised by contemporary religious experience. Modernity, the authors believe, continues to pose challenges to this tradition by eroding the sense that its dominance is complete and its position is secure. With modernity has come the fragmentation of communal meaning and belonging. Basic Christian orientations are under attack from all sides and people feel embattled. Piety may remain, but assurance does not. Yest beneath modern manifestations of doubt moves the undertow of the ancient quest for ultimate meaning and transcendence, for personal identity, for God. With this quest the never-quite-resolved issues persist: prayer and solitude, withdrawal and renunciation, engagement with the world, witness to faith, and service to one’s fellow human beings. Social change demands familiar points of reference. Flexibility depends on fixity. People need markers: places, names, standards, sacred formulae. They need to know where they are coming from and where the are going. Without a firmer grasp of the past we are unprepared to face the present in a spirit of hope. This new edition of The Desert and The City is intended to nourish such hope.