An exploration of "rational faith," blending religious ideas and science through encounters with profound despair and power, revealing the reality of sacred beliefs.

This autobiographical odyssey seeks in places of great striving a “rational faith” — one true to both our highest religious ideas and our advancing sciences. As founder of both charitable and technical businesses, author David Sayre leads us to places of the greatest despair and the greatest power on earth. There we meet amazing examples of good and evil, interwoven with contemporary scientists’ own searches for meaning, explaining faith and love, truth and life, time and order and beauty. The things we hold sacred are real, after all.

• About this book
• Preface
• Contents
• Emerson Hospital
• Harvard, Massachusetts
• The Arlington Street Church, Boston
• Radio Communications Corporation
• The Development Center
• Middletown Prison
• The Pentagon, Washington, DC
• The Newfern School for the Retarded
• The Fitness Club
• La Musée Marmottan
• Shaftsbury, Vermont
• Monhegan Island
• The Metropolitan State Hospital
• Dorchester, Massachusetts
• Hawikkuh, Zuni Land
• Manhattan Island
• Hard Scrabble Wash
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Gloucester Cathedral
• The Berkshire Hills
• Tilden Pond
• The Board Room
• The South Bronx
• Northfield Mountain
• The Emergency Room
• Harvard, Massachusetts
• Glossary
• About the Author