This is Roy Bhaskar's first systematic study of the philosophy of religion. Based on the Radhakrishnan lectures on spirituality and comparitive religion which he gave at the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata in February and March 2002, it will attract worldwide interest and stimulate fresh thinking about old issues in the philosophy of religion.

Bhaskar engages in a critical history of the great religions of civilization from their primeval roots and reveals how spirituality is also implicit within secular emancipatory projects, including western liberalism and Marxian socialism. He argues that the motivation for all of these is self-realization, and displays how this self-realization may be utilized to achieve true emancipation.

He posits the argument that contemporary thought, both secular and religious suffer from a reflection of the alienations, contradictions and injustices in the world in which we live. Furthermore he argues that this may be overcome with the qualities of human intelligence and creativity to  transcend these negative elements of the human condition.