This "new testament" of our two-part summer retreat featuring international literature on religious themes begins with Guido Monte's multilingual account of Creation. Persian poet Abbas Saffari provides a witty, romantic retelling of the Quranic version of the story of Adam and Eve. Rafi Zabor and translator Angela Jaffray introduce us to Sufi master Ibn 'Arabi and his mind-expanding "Epistle on Cosmic Unification." MuXin explores the difference between religion and ritual, reverence and reward in "The Moment When Childhood Vanishes." Adolfo Albertazzi lets loose a mischievous Italian spirit in "The Devil in the Decanter." Poets from a variety of traditions and languages--Yiddish, Greek Orthodox, and Nahuatl (Aztec)--wrestle, plead, worship, doubt, and glory in the divine. And in an extra-canonical addition to material posted in part one, translator Christi Merrill contributes an essay on Vijay Dan Detha. If you were on vacation in July, click back to Speaking in Tongues.