"There is nothing wiser than the circle," Rilke says in his Stories of God. In The Circle Dance of Time, John Dunne explores the wisdom of the circle, emphasizing the far point on the circle, farthest away from God, and using that to discuss the difficulties of our secular age. In the individual life, the far point is a dark night of the soul. Yet Dunne sees that far point of loneliness and darkness as a turning point as well, marking the return to love and light. So the theme of the book is like the words of an old Bedouin to Lawrence of Arabia, "The love is from God, and of God, and towards God." The book concludes with the words of twenty-one "Circle Songs," composed by the author.