This book addresses a subject that has only recently aroused critical interest - Borges engagement with religious and mystical questions in a search for a spiritual core to existence. Opposing standard views of the Argentine master as a cerebral writer of playful, nihilistic texts, it traces a development from initial explorations of philosophical and theological themes in the essays and stories towards a more intensely personal struggle to find a form of spiritual salvation, as evinced in in the poetry of his later years.
Throughout the chronology of his work, Borges keeps redefining the nature of his search. His persistent attempts at finding a spiritual core to existence, however fraught and incomplete they may appear, rather than point to resignation, are evidence of both the sincerity as well as the quiet passion with which he pursued this quest. The journey, it is said, is every bit as important as the arrival. In the case of Borges, this is all the more extraordinary because an ultimate resolution did not come to him easily.