INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS & BELIEF SYSTEMS

(CHAPTER 1)

NINIAN SMART (6 MAY 1927- 9 JANUARY 2001)

Ninian Smart (1927-2001) held several positions as a professor at the University

of Birmingham and University of Lancaster in England, and at the University of
California, Santa Barbara in the U.S. But in spite of these stellar academic achievements
Professor Smart made it possible for religious studies to become accessible to a wider
audience. Published in 1989, his book The World Religions was widely read. He was also
the editorial consultant to BBC’s The Long Search, a documentary television series that
covered different world religions.
Professor Smart’s lasting influence is in defining religious studies as a non-confessional and secular field
of inquiry. In his time, the academic study of religion primarily took place within theology, a discipline with
interest in apologetics and evaluating truth claims. In fact, Professor Smart himself was the head of the
Department of Theology at the University of Birmingham. When he was offered a place to head the newly
established Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University in the 1960s, Smart accepted it so he could
push for his academic vision of religious studies. To him, religious studies can approach various religions as
phenomena embedded in human experience. The task then of the student id to ask what people believe and do,
and why. This approach was revolutionary in those days. Smart later on moved to the University of California,
Santa Barbara.
During an interview a few years before he passed away, Smart articulated his enduring theological vision
when he was asked to describe his faith:
I like to annoy people who think that a religion can contain the whole truth. No religion, it seems to me,
contains the whole truth. I think it’s mad to think that there is nothing to learn from other traditions and
civilizations. If you accept that other religions have something to offer and you learn from them, that is what you
become: a Buddhist-Episcopalian or a Hindu-Muslim or whatever.
Not only was Professor Smart a forerunner in crafting a secular vision for religious studies, but also his
theological vision, or his understanding of himself as a religious person, clearly colored the appreciation he has
of the religions in the world (London, 2015)

Source:
Calano, Mark Joseph Tumada, Cornelio, Jayeel Serrano, and Sapitula, Manuel Victor Jamias. (2016). Introduction to World
Religions and Belief Systems. Rex Book Store, Inc. Manila, Philippines.

https://www.lancs.ac.uk/Web/News/Pages/1DFBA93D45CF9A6E802569E5004FF8E4.aspx. Retrieved on May

14, 2015