Tony Blair gave an extraordinary lecture at Westminster Cathedral in London the other day. It was a speech that outed him, so to speak, as a man of deep spirituality.
Not that he had ever made a secret of his religiosity when he was Britain's Prime Minister, openly converting to Catholicism after he left office. But, as he explained to his Westminster audience, for various reasons connected with the culture in Britain and parts of Europe, politicians are not expected to "do God".
Freed from those constraints, however, Mr Blair spoke, with characteristic eloquence, in terms of faith "giving the use of reason a purpose and society a soul and human beings a sense of the divine".
This is a life purpose, he said, "that cannot be found in constitutions, speeches, stirring art or rhetoric. It is a purpose uniquely centred around kneeling before God". Inspiring words indeed. Beyond the revelation of just how important he deems the presence of God to be in his personal life, he dwelt on a theme of no less import than Faith And Globalisation.
As boundaries fall, religious faith could either promote peaceful co-existence or have the opposite effect, he noted. But rather than religion exacerbating the clash of civilisations, as its extremist elements tend to do, it could be a powerful force for the promotion of tolerance and respect, friendship and understanding. And as economic and political power shifts eastward away from the traditional western nodes, faith could unite the world around a common set of values without which a sense of purpose "to help guide (the world's) journey" would be missing.
Far from being irrelevant, he argued, religious faith "has a major part to play in shaping the values which guide the modern world and can and should be a force for progress". Faith needs to be rescued not just from extremism but also from secularism. Mr Blair, still the man of action, is setting up a foundation that will contribute to inter-faith efforts and produce high-quality educational materials that attempt to give a true picture of the different faiths. The foundation will try not to duplicate the work of similar organisations but to complement it by helping them to combine their efforts and by promoting faith as "full of present relevance".
It is significant that a layman of Mr Blair's stature should attempt to convey such a spiritually charged message to the world. The Pope's trip to the US last week brought to the fore several issues of faith but that's par for the course for a papal tour, especially in a country that wears its religiosity on its sleeve in a way that Europe - with the exception of a few countries, including Malta - has sadly ceased to do. But, with Mr Blair's vast experience of global affairs, and because he is not a religious practitioner, he may be seen as more credible and more suited than any religious leader to the endeavour of harnessing the potential of different faiths to work together for world harmony. His foundation may be the ideal rallying point for such efforts.
Mr Blair's message has the flavour of evangelism but without being tied to any one religion. It doesn't matter what faith you have, he is saying - the important thing is that you have it and that you recognise its equally valid presence in other belief systems. In that sense, again, it may transcend calls for tolerance and understanding made by religious leaders.
With his legacy so undermined by the Iraq war, he is bound to be facing some degree of scepticism, increasing the closer one gets to the Middle East. But he has spelled out a tantalising vision of how the world could become a better one and, even if just for this reason, he deserves the backing of all moderate, right-thinking men and women, whether believers or otherwise.