The speeches in this book set forth a universal ethic. This universal ethic is selfless love, and its immediate manifestation in the family. The author, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, works from this beginning point to an explanation of the cosmos, human life and history. All is the outworking of this one idea, one structure, one desire love in family -- the root of which is God.

If we grant the need for a universal ethic, why should we work with the family as the fundamental category? Why not work from the categories of individual and community, with family a sub-species of the latter, to find our universal ethic? The answer is: the individual is too small, and the community too large.

In the individual we cannot find all the dimensions of love. Missing is the relationship of male-female, the primary arena into which love moves us. Missing also are the relationships of elder and younger, of brother and sister, of the generations which encapsulate history. These exist not in the individual, but rather they appear first in the family.

The community, on the other hand, is too large. In it we grapple with elements undeniably important yet removed one step from the universal. There are myriad communities; there is one family. The community is an historical phenomenon; the family is beyond history.

There is no one who has developed a worldview on the basis of the family, other than Reverend Moon. He is offering not just a philosophy in the abstract, but a worldview which has been put into practice for two generations, within all the world's cultures, races and nations. There is a track record to these ideas. Unlike most philosophers, his is a praxis-based system.

Lacking a structure of ideas and principles operating in their support, our families are collapsing, east and west, north and south, under the weight of post-modern, deconstructed life. And with the collapse of the family come intractable social, political and economic problems. Thus the need for a universal ethic based upon the family takes on an urgency far beyond the realm of politics. To restore the family, we need to begin with a spiritual regeneration from within our homes, within our marriages. No one, rich or poor, black, white or yellow is exempt. This addresses us all.

Allow yourself to grapple with the implications of this one idea. You will find yourself changed in the encounter. Reverend Moon presents a profound challenge. A radically new perspective on God, on human origins and on the Bible, comes into view, with a simple, family-based logic behind it. Confronting as it may be, his proclamation is inescapable: either we practice true love and true family, or the world has no hope.

Yet the battle already has been won; the very proclamation of this message validates the life of suffering, the history of suffering, human and divine, which lies behind it. Through it all, the reality of love, of forgiveness granted before it is even understood as being necessary, is triumphant. Reverend and Mrs. Moon have no axes to grind; they just want to give and give, and forget what they have given, and give more. This victory of God's parental love portends humankind's glorious future, and establishes true love and true family as the inalienable right, ultimate responsibility and eternal blessing given us all.