[Book review] Lino Bianco : The ring metaphor and the spirit of sofia and other essays

Abstract

Reading the book by Lino Bianco may conjure within the reader an experience similar to the one felt by the redeemed Edmond Dantès in Alexandre Dumas père’s 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo when he retrieves the hidden treasure. The latter’s precise location had been meticulously indicated by fellow prisoner Abbé Faria who became his mentor and “saviour” during his unjust and cruel imprisonment at the merciless Chateau d’If, off the coast of Marseilles. The collection of essays is indeed a treasure trove as it offers a praiseworthy convergence of a number of academic disciplines in the search for “the hidden soul of space” (p.xvi). The essays offer a remarkable exercise in interdisciplinarity. This is what a university – indeed universitas magistrorum et scholarium – is meant to be. The essays bridge a number of aspects which include architecture, interreligious and ecumenical dialogue, philosophy, aesthetics and music.