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This timely volume examines the ideal of the individual, the family, society, and the environment from a variety of vantage points -- Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist and Zen Buddhist, Native American, Confucian, Taoist, Shinto, and the Goddess tradition. The Ideal argues forcefully for the ideals of a peaceful world, of respect for religious difference, of mindfulness, of ecology, and the resacralization of nature and the body. Although The Ideal makes clear the general support for the possibility of a global ethics, each tradition -- both within itself and between other traditions -- is faced with challenges. What the editors and the writers finally call for is a reshaping of established views if we are to survive and flourish in a postmodern world.