OVER 40 years ago, when I was visiting Bryce Canyon, a young woman gave me a copy of Elder John Widtsoe’s A Rational Theology as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While I disagree with many of the details the tendency toward literalism in scriptural interpretation and the underlying fundamentalism--some of the great ideas enunciated in that small book excited me: universal intelligence, universal matter, the great law of increasing complexity in the universe. What I wanted was a larger philosophical perspective for I was working my way out of Indiana Methodism at the time. My intellectual journey took me to India and Japan and from the traditions of both countries I have learned much.