Where do our values and ideas come from? Is a nation defined by its borders, languages, or even the ancestry of its citizens? As a curious explorer, Raoul Schrott delves into the world of our coexistence in four major essays. Using High German as an example, he illustrates how culture is formed. He demonstrates the explosive power of ideas through the politics of the sacred, as exemplified by the papal election. "Nothing closed off can endure in the long run." This sentence takes on new meaning when considering society as the result of millennia-long processes. Here, a universal scholar looks beyond the next political trench warfare.