This is an absorbing and exceptionally perceptive account of how deep symbols or words of power, which tend to be a culture's normative language, have undergone diminishment in contemporary postmodern society. Edward Farley explains that such diminishment does not necessarily imply the demise of these symbols since traces of them remain, inviting their rethinking. The book begins by spelling out the character and prospect of deep symbols in postmodern society. Then follow five chapters, each dealing with a particular deep symbol: tradition, obligation (duty), reality, law, and hope. A concluding chapter shows the structural entanglement of these symbols with each other and their relation to the sacred and the interhuman.