The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich

"Ivan Illich was an iconoclast who urged a fundamental rethinking of modern institutions. He believed that Western civilization can only be understood properly as a corruption of the New Testament ... ." "In The rivers north of the future, based on a series of interviews with David Cayley in the late 1990s, Illich explores this theme - characterized by the saying 'The corruption of the best is the worst.' As Charles Taylor notes in his foreword, 'from within [Illich's] perspective, the significance of the Good Samaritan story appears obvious: it is a stage on the road to a universal morality of rules.' Illich's analysis of contemporary society is both a bold historical hypothesis and an invitiation to believers to revise and renew their understanding of Christian faith." --book cover.