This work is the result of ongoing collaboration in which many have shared. Hence the author expresses his gratitude to:

(a) The Vice Chancellor, Faculty and Students of the Univer-sity of the Punjab, Lahore, for evoking this work through their invitation and response to the Iqbal lecture on which it is based;

(b) Eugene De Mazenod and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate whose open vision inspired both this search into many sources and the effort to find their deep point of intersection as the pilgrimages of all peoples to the Holy Mountain;

(c) the Universities, especially the Gregorian University in Rome and The Catholic University of America in Washington; the philosophical Associations, especially The American Catholic Philosophical Association, The World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies and The International Society for Metaphysics; and the research teams of The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) in China and India, Central and Eastern Europe, Cairo and Rome, Africa and Latin America, Europe and North America, which have made possible the explorations which converge in this work;

(d) Richard and Nancy Graham whose gracious hospitality and world vision provided context and inspiration for the initial draft of this work; and

(e) Hu Yeping whose technical competence and constant care have brought this manuscript to completion.

Above all, on the occasion of the completion of his 70th year, the author thanks God as Source and Goal of all for life and vocation, and for the opportunities to discover and admire these many ways along which, with peoples of all cultures and civilizations, past and present, we are drawn forward toward Him by whom we have first been loved.

George F. McLean, O.M.I.