Mankind's Last Chance

The author brings his unusual experience as a humanitarian worker to the discussion of the current state of western civilisation, arguing for a moral reawakening and renewed commitment to the common good through a spiritual transformation prompted by the universal truths of religion. He asks where we have gone wrong, what we are dealing with and where we are now before proposing a solution based on the transformative power of religion, specifically the Baha'i faith, which only becomes fully apparent at the end of the book. One interesting aspect is the very different attitude of children in Africa who have a very distinctive and rooted sense of identity. Another important feature of the book is the author's own mystical experience dating back some years. He sees religious leaders and prophets as major drivers of social change and highlights some characteristics of social decline in our society, extremes of which he has witnessed in his work. He overstates his case in arguing that all progress originates in religion, which can be as regressive as it is progressive, and there are certainly other universal approaches than the Baha'i, whose teaching is explained in some detail.