In this work, the author defends the primary faith of humankind, that there is a real world which is more than a shadow of our desires and fancies and which can be discovered through right of reason. He quotes from such sources as W.B. Yeats, Edwin Muir and Lennon and McCartney.

In God's World and the Great Awakening, Professor Clark's main concern is with the way we can `turn aside' to the Truth from the normal delusions of self-concern. He restates a traditional, Neoplatonic metaphysics as the proper context for scientific and religious practice, and defends a serious Platonic realism against both scientism and anti-realism. Neither scientism, which identifies Truth with what can be revealed to the objectifying gaze, nor fashionable anti-realism, which equates Truth simply with what `we' choose to take seriously, offer an adequate ground for our scientific or religious faith. The primary faith of humankind is that there is a real world which is more than an obsequious shadow of our desires and fancies, and this real world can be discovered through right reason. The defence of this faith requires a properly worked, Platonic metaphysic of just the kind discernible in Christian orthodoxy.

The other two volumes are: Civil Peace and Sacred Order (1989) and A Parliament of Souls (1990).

'The third volume of an impressive trilogy ... Clark has some very important things to say, and he says them eloquently. He draws from a fascinating range of sources, literary, religious, and philosophical. His discursive and allusive style is vital and engaging ... Like its two predecessors, this volume is one of the more constructive critiques of liberal culture in recent years.' Nigel Biggar, Oriel College, Religious Studies Review, Volume 20, Number 1, January 1994