the inner life. Every attempt to evade the world will have to be paid for sooner or later with a sinful surrender to the world. (It is a fact of experience that where the gross sins of sexuality are conquered, sins will flourish that are just as gross but less derided by the world, such as greed or avarice.) In the eyes of a worldly observer, there is usually something tragicomic about the cultivation of a Christian inwardness undisturbed by the world; for the sharp—eyed world recognizes itself most