Book excerpt: In the long trek of human history, the adage that there will never be peace among the nations until there is peace among the religions has never been truer. The growing trend toward spiritually inspired violence throughout the emerging global village of the twenty-first century has taken a terrible toll on the lives of thousands of innocent victims. The primary purpose of this book is to address this issue head-on by examining the role that the earth's diverse faith communities can play in stopping the needless hatreds and hostilities that all too often arise from the search for spiritual fulfillment. At this stage of human evolution, nothing is more urgent.