For centuries science and religion have carried on "a philosophical cold war." The first lays claim to its value-free approach to fact and truth while the latter emphasizes its value-laden approach to meaning and wisdom. Romanticism, idealism, and postmodernism have not been able to integrate science and religion on terms acceptable to both camps.

Ken Wilber, a philosopher, respects both the integrity of science and the bounties of perennial wisdom. Lamenting the flatland of modernity where interior consciousness, psyche, soul, spirit, values, morals, ethics, and art are collapsed into only one "real" domain, he presents an alternate, integral vision. Soul, body, matter, and spirit all come together under "The Great Nest of Being." The four quadrants of cultural, intentional, behavioral, and social reality provide a framework for the integration of science and religion.