ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 presents the novelist Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), who renounced his messianic beliefs in Communism in 1938 following the crimes of the Stalin regime. The chapter outlines Koestler’s spirituality against the background of his deconversion and highlights the role of cognitive dissonance in his actions. Koestler’s case illustrates the impact of a spiritual awakening he experienced while imprisoned in a Spanish jail in 1936.
