The Right Reverend Philip Roundtree, bishop of the Church of England, is not exactly your average clergyman. Unpredictability surrounds him like an aura. Whenever he steps into a pulpit to speak, anything can happen. And this time, anything does.

Before an entire convocation of church dignitaries, he makes an incredible suggestion: He proposes a universal religion. A religion which all of the known faiths would adopt as their own, scrapping their dogmas and rites. A religion that would unite man-kind in a single, simple worship of God. One religion.

Shocking, of course. Except to Philip Roundtree-and to Sir Cyril Throckmorton Plessey, the aged but extremely lively multimillionaire who takes it into his head to become Roundtree’s sponsor. The bishop sparks an interest in Plessey, that interest sparks Plessey’s money-and that money sparks one of the most momentous, earth-shaking conferences in the history of the world.

How Roundtree manages to bring together leaders of all the world’s religions in one place, what happens when the Orthodox Jews meet the Moslems, how the Christian Scientists get along with the Sunni sect of the Buddhists, what transpires when a strict young Anglican priest falls in love with a Buddhist Thai beauty, and finally, how the conference is shatteringly resolved-these are all parts of John Ball’s provocative, inspiring and immensely exciting novel, The Fourteenth Point.