Today, we the people of the United States include practitioners of many religious traditions. All of them are challenged to come to terms with the new pluralism that now accompanies America's historic commitment to religious freedom. In this tape of selected segments from PBS's "Religion and Ethics News Weekly Series," Bob Abernathey presents stories about various religions, beliefs, and practices in the U.S. today.

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Born in China of missionary parents, Smith learned about Chinese language, culture, and religion while growing up. Smith explains how the intertwining of opposites is key to the understanding of the great religions of China -- Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Smith introduces Yoga, which he has been practicing for 50 years.

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Modern society represents literally millions of different religions, faiths, beliefs and practices. Is such a diversity just a recent occurrence or did the persons of Biblical times experience it as well?

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Smith's lifetime of experience and study helps him go beyond the differences between each tradition. Smith shows how the cultivation of virtues valued by all religions --intelligence, compassion, creativity, truth, beauty and goodness --can lead to transcendence. Smith believes that all enduring traditions ultimately make the same claim, that everything emanates from an absolute perfection.

In recent years there has been an explosion of curiosity and debate about Islam and about the role of religion, both in the world and in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The numerous books published on these questions speak to issues of politics, history, or global security. None speaks to the heart and the spirit, and yet millions of people experience these issues not as political, economic, or intellectual questions but as questions of deep spiritual, emotional, and religious significance.

The Tent of Abraham provides readers with stories that can bring all the faiths together. Written by Saadi Shakur Chishti, a Scottish American Sufi, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, an American Jew, and Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister, the book explores in accessible language the mythic quality and the teachings of reconciliation that are embedded in the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible. It also weaves together the wisdoms of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions into a deeper, more unified whole.

The Tent of Abraham is the first book to tell the whole story of Abraham as found in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources and to reenergize it as a basis for peace.