Includes index.

Despite the best efforts of scientists, theologians and aestheticians to explain creation and creativity, both remain mysterious. Peter Conrad's book investigates these mysteries in a survey of cultural history that begins with the differing accounts of creation in the Bible and Greek myth and advances to our own world, where creativity seems to have warped into a fierce delight in destruction. He describes the long illness and eventual demise of the Christian God, and shows how artists and scientists were ready and eager to take over a creative role that was once a heavenly prerogative. At the same time, he probes the creative impulse of writers, painters, and musicians, celebrating the audacity of the restless, rebellious beings who first questioned the limits placed on thoughts and dreams, supplemented nature with their own creations and came to be known -- for want of a better word -- as artists. -- From publisher's description.

SACFinal081324