This book deals with contemporary issues of vital global concern on human rights, environment and development, and religion, and in the text of his 1993 Rede Lecture--which forms the basis for the book--the author presents his own analytical comments on current thinking on these issues. Also included are declarations from three major conferences: the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the U.N. World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago, both in 1993. The author led delegations to these conferences, and was closely associated with their deliberations.