This spiritual classic, first published in 1978, established Lex Hixon (1942 - 1995) as a trailblazer on the path of interspirituality. He received his Ph. D. in world religions from Columbia University. From 1971 to 1984 he broadcast a weekly radio interview program in New York City called "In the Spirit" during which he talked with spiritual teachers from around the world from Mother Teresa to the Dalai Lama. Hixon's other books reflect his eclectic study and practice in the wisdom traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, the Divine Mother tradition of Hinduism, Islam and Sufism, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

Ken Wilber has called Coming Home "the single best introductory book ever written on the world's great mystical traditions." This is not an historical or doctrinal analysis of these paths. It is an enthusiastic celebration of the contemplative awareness that unites them all. Hixon begins by defining enlightenment as "the awakening to our primal harmony or, in another mystical language, to our rootedness in the Divine. From Enlightenment radiate the insight, compassion, and power needed to resolve individual and collective human problems as they continue to arise endlessly." In ten chapters, Hixon explores the interplay of the spiritual traditions whose central theme is Enlightenment. He moves from Krishnamurti to Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharishi, Zen Ox-herding, Plotinus, Jewish Soul Masters of the Hasidic Way, the letters of St. Paul, the teachings of the contemporary Sufi Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, the oracle of the I Ching, and Advaita Vedanta.

At the core of Hixon's work at the crossroads is his hospitality to the vitalities and visions of all religious traditions. Or as he puts it, "Spiritual longing should be accompanied by sympathetic yet critical intelligence that continually reorients us to the most compassionate ethical values and the most comprehensive practice of contemplation." Again and again, he models for us this kind of sensitivity marked by a yearning for unity.

For Hixon, one of the most vivid practitioners of a universal spiritual perspective was the Hindu seer Sri Ramakrishna. His all-embracing Tantric path enabled him to participate in Christian and Muslim traditions as well. Hixon notes: "Ramakrishna often remarked that the most serious distortion of spiritual life is the one-sidedness which makes us cling exclusively to a particular viewpoint. His guiding vision was that of a continuum of Consciousness in which all forms or viewpoints take shape and dissolve like bubbles in a stream. Ramakrishna's was a comprehensive way of devotion to the Divine Forms revealed in all sacred traditions." Perhaps the most surprising and illuminating chapter in the book is the one on St. Paul's mysticism and Hixon's characterization of him as a visionary who saw the Christ nature as a unifying force in the expression of Divine Life.