In the rich tapestry of Western civilization, certain themes and stories keep recurring. They mark our culture’s continuity as each generation finds new meaning in them. From the Middle Ages to the present, the legend of Faust has never gone away. It speaks to people in every time and place. Why? Perhaps because each of us faces the same choice: to live for worldly rewards like money, pleasure, or fame, or to dedicate ourselves to higher, more selfless goals. The Faust story, echoing Christ’s temptation in the desert and the ancient cautionary tales of Prometheus and Icarus, symbolizes this eternal human struggle. There actually was a Doctor Faust, a 16th-century German astrologer whose dabbling in magic got him banished from towns and accused of selling his soul to the devil. Over the years, so many legends grew up around his name that it’s impossible now to separate fact from fiction. …