It is often believed that the mythology of "primitive" peoples represents nothing more than an early effort to explain the universe rationally and is meant to be taken literally. Therefore, attention is shifted away from myth in favor of more highly developed forms of scientific investigation. This understanding, which assumes in modern man an evolutionary superiority, overlooks the symbolic message contained within the myths of such cultures. A similar form of rationalistic attack is often conducted against religious doctrine, and has contributed to such the virtual dissapearance of the metaphysicial and intellectual heritage within Christianity. Gai Eaton discusses these and other instances in which failure to comprehend the depth of a spiritual reality leads to its dismissal as irrelevant or absurd.

Gai Eaton contrasts the increasingly prevalent view that man is in no way essentially different from other animals and therefore has no special rights with a doctrine characteristic of several spiritual traditions: that man is unique and granted certain privileges as well as obligated to uphold certain responsibilites. He explains how man has failed to meet these responsibilites by abusing animals and other natural resources, as well as behaving harmfully towards other men. Eaton uses the destruction of American Indian civilization as the primary illustration of the latter tendency.

Gai Eaton reviews Sacred Art in East and West: Its Principles and Methods by Titus Burckhardt, a book he calls “a study of what real art has been in the past and of what it still is in those few regions of the world that have not yet been completely overrun by modernism.” The book focuses on the sacred art of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Taoism.