From the Devil to God

A substantial collection of short prose (stories) with a markedly philosophical bias that follows on from ''A Visit to Hell'' (1979) and signifies a rejection of the kind of Spenglerian pessimism that figured prominently in the latter title. Here things open-out towards a future in which God or godliness is the evolutionary outcome. Hence the title ''From the Devil to God'', with implications that contrast the alpha-most of things with the omega-most or, at any rate, with what would be nearest to such a heavenly eventuality. However, the first piece in this collection, as might be supposed, is rather more alpha-stemming in its paradoxical accommodation of the flesh, and this despite the omega-oriented pretensions of its principal protagonist, who just happens to be a priest. The cover depicts one of John O''Loughlin''s ''Square and Circle'' paintings, which is intended to signify an alpha/omega dichotomy, whether or not the one leads, indirectly, to the other.