Most of the fourteen essays in this book originated as radio talks, so they are written in an understandable way. The quality of the essays varied, but I found most of them offered much food for thought. The author touches on a variety of topics, such as creeds, rituals surrounding death, and the act of speaking a blessing, but there are recurrent themes that underly all the chapters, such as the need to balance the necessary overthrow of authoritarian structures with a treasuring of tradition, or the poor as the primary addressees of the gospel. These concerns are well-expressed in this sentence from the foreword to the collection, where he reflects on the title of the book:
“Die Träume von der Güte des Lebens und von der Gerechtigkeit verwelken, wo sie nicht ernährt werden durch mehr als durch die einsame Kraft und Phantasie des Individuums.” (The dreams of the goodness of life and of righteousness [the German word can also be translated justice] wither if they are not nourished by more than the lonely strength and imagination of the individual).
If anything, his criticisms have only grown more relevant in the decades since this book appeared, as the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged has grown wider. ( )