A Holy Tradition of Working

Book excerpt: It is evident that a major reassessment of Eric Gill is taking place, and while this process has begun for his sculpture and for his engravings, as yet his writings have remained inaccessible. A new generation, recognizing the necessity of an holistic view of life in which art, work, and spiritual values form a unity, stands to gain much from a re-examination of Gill's thought. Almost nothing of the material included in this anthology has been reprinted since his death in 1940. The anthology has been devised around 14 chapters in each of which extracts of various lengths from Gill's many books are arranged to give a concise and as near comprehensive as possible exposition of his thought. A long introduction relates Gill's thought to its roots in traditional doctrine and the English radical thinkers who were his masters, as well as an assessment of the validity and relevance of Gill's standpoint to contemporary conditions.