Reading Hermann Hesse Through the Gospel

Hermann Hesse did not throw the gospel away. He kept its grammar and changed its object. Rebirth. Conversion. Calling. Pilgrimage. The boy who climbed the wall at Maulbronn spent his life writing in the vocabulary of the house he fled. One name had simply been erased from the object of every sentence. This book follows that empty space through ten of his novels. Is the mark of Cain really the badge of the strong? Why could Siddhartha not save his own son? Why were Hesse's last two heroes both named for servants?Reading alongside Timothy Keller, C.
S. Lewis, John Stott, and John Piper, this is not a book against Hesse. He diagnosed the modern soul earlier and more beautifully than his critics ever did. The diagnosis is largely right. What we question is the prescription. Where did the bird fly after it broke the shell?