The riddle of creation: a prologue -- Part 1. Worlds without beginning -- 1. The dazzled vision of the Hindus -- 2. The indifference of Confucius -- 3. The silence of the Buddha -- 4. The Homeric scripture of the Greeks -- Part 2. A creator-God -- 5. The intimate God of Moses -- 6. The birth of theology -- 7. The innovative God of Saint Augustine -- 8. The uncreated Koran.

Book 1: Creator man -- Part 3. The power of stone -- 9. The mystery of megaliths -- 10. Castles of eternity -- 11. Temples of community -- 12. Orders for survival -- 13. Artificial stone: a Roman revolution -- 14. Dome of the world -- 15. The great church -- 16. A road not taken: the Japanese triumph of wood -- Part 4. The magic of images -- 17. The awe of images -- 18. Human hieroglyphs -- 19. The athletic ideal -- 20. For family, empire -- and history -- 21. The healing image -- 22. "Satan's handiwork" -- Part 5. The immortal word -- 23. Dionysus the twice-born -- 24. The birth of the spectator: from ritual to drama -- 25. The mirror of comedy -- 26. The arts of prose and persuasion.

Book 2: Re-creating the world -- Part 6. Otherworldly elements -- 27. The consoling past -- 28. The music of the word -- 29. An architecture of light -- 30. Adventures in death -- Part 7. The human comedy: a composite work -- 31. Escaping the plague -- 32. Joys of pilgrimage -- 33. "In the land of booze and bibbers" -- 34. Adventures in madness -- 35. The spectator reborn -- 36. The freedom to choose -- 37. Sagas of ancient empire -- 38. New-world epics -- 39. A mosaic of novels -- 40. In love with the public -- Part 8. From craftsman to artist -- 41. Archetypes brought to life -- 42. Roman afterlives -- 43. The mysteries of light: from a walk to a window -- 44. Sovereign of the visible world -- 45. "Divine Michelangelo" -- 46. The painted word: the inward path of Tao.

Part 9. Composing for the community -- 47. A protestant music -- 48. The music of instruments: from court to concert -- 49. New worlds for the orchestra -- 50. The music of risorgimento -- 51. A Germanic union of the arts -- 52. The ephemeral art of the dance -- 53. The music of innovation -- Part 10. Conjuring with time and space -- 54. The painted moment -- 55. The power of light: "The pencil of nature" -- 56. The rise of the skyscraper.

Book 3. Creating the self -- Part 11. The vanguard word -- 57. Inventing the essay -- 58. The art of being truthful: confessions -- 59. The arts of seeming truthful: autobiography -- 60. Intimate biography -- 61. The heroic self -- 62. Songs of the self -- 63. In a dry season -- Part 12. The wilderness within -- 64. An American at sea -- 65. Sagas of the Russian soul -- 66. Journey to the interior -- 67. The garden of involuntary memory -- 68. The filigreed self -- 69. "I too am here!" -- 70. Vistas from a restless self -- Epilogue: Mysteries of a public art.