When people, despite Dante’s warning (Do not mimic me.), imitate Dante, they do by desiring the same “object”, Christ, the “victim that brings everyone into relation”.

Their imitation should blind them to petrifying literary medusas such as Nietzsche and Rousseau, but it doesn’t.  In our world of unconstrained complexity, one cannot easily tell whether a symbolic order is formative or deformative, that is, whether it will inspire you to become “what your (and everyone else’s) heart desires” or turn your heart to stone.

Alberg’s book is an attempt to find a way to tell.