Chapter seven argued for a world of the future in which nation states as currently constituted would play a much less significant role. Nation states may survive, or different confederations and associations and alliances of smaller, more local units might emerge. Barber calls this the ‘confederal option’. What role nation-states will or will not play in the new world order will depend on whether people continue to consider them useful or not. A reformed and empowered United Nations might also continue as a type of global government. The type of mechanism described in chapter seven to ensure fairness and a retreat from self-interest would, I believe, become increasingly unnecessary, as members hold themselves morally accountable. The biblical record can be read either as nations remaining distinct, but not rivals, within the new world or as merging to form a new people, a single though diverse people centered on God. Either way, nations recede in significance. What about religion? Are religions, like the raft in the Buddha's metaphor, a burden once we have reached the far shore? In addition to similarity between the higher principle and ideas proposed by Fukuyama and others, William Hocking envisaged a coming world civilization. Hocking argued that Christianity is not something that Christians possess and can therefore ‘transmit’ to others. Rather, it is eternally sought after.