Alexander’s aim is to show that, if one’s definitions are broad enough, then there are important commonalities between religious experiences in the various world faiths. He takes a wide definition of ‘mystical’ (‘a first-hand knowledge of God’) and ‘God’ (‘the eternal and unchangeable goodness’). Then he quotes from leading writers in three religions: from Islam, Gurdial Mallik, Maulana Azad and Asaf Fysee; from Hinduism, Mahatma Gandhi; and from Christianity, Charlie Andrews.
Alexander shows how each writer recognises that there can be deep spiritual communion between people of different religions and that no one faith is superior to any other.
He does admit that people with universalist views can be dismissed by more orthodox believers: for example, he says that Andrews ‘is dismissed as sentimental and woolly, and even positively dangerous. This, of course, is what commonly happens to God’s saints’. But Alexander ends on a positive note: ‘the truth of God moves on, slowly, painfully, but irresistibly’.