In today's world, we are witnessing both the spread of a hopeful secular humanism and the persistence of cultural traditions that mindlessly glorify humans and are paving the path to environmental collapse. Peter Heinegg addresses how we are now on a collision course heading toward ecological catastrophe-the one solution to this being a true "agonizing reappraisal" of who we are and how we do things. In Dim and Dimmer, Peter Heinegg tackles the question: "Can the 'New Enlightenment' already dawning save the day?"

Peter Heinegg is a professor of English and world literature at Union College in Schenectady, New York, as well as an essayist, critic, and translator.