ABSTRACT

Ninian Smart came to public prominence as the founding Professor of the first British university Department of Religious Studies in the late 1960s. His pioneering views on education in religion proved hugely influential at all levels, from primary schools to academic teaching and research. An unending string of publications, many of them accessible to the general public, sustained a reputation that became worldwide. Here, for the first time, a selection of Ninian Smart's wide-ranging writings is organised systematically under a set of categories which both comprehend and also illuminate his varied output over a career spanning half a century. The editor, John Shepherd, was Principal Lecturer in Religion and Philosophy at the University of Cumbria. He first met Smart as a postgraduate student, and recently helped establish the Ninian Smart Archive at the University of Lancaster.

part I|146 pages

Individual Traditions

chapter 6|10 pages

Swami Vivekananda as a Philosopher

chapter 9|12 pages

Maoism and Religion*

chapter 11|13 pages

Myth and Transcendence 1

chapter 12|9 pages

Islamic Responses to the West

chapter 13|6 pages

Salman Rushdie in a Plural World

chapter 14|11 pages

The Twenty-First Century and Small Peoples

part II|43 pages

Worldview Analysis Religions in the Modern World

part III|51 pages

Christian Theology of Religions and Interfaith Dialogue

chapter 20|13 pages

Revelation, Reason and Religions

chapter 22|9 pages

God’s Body

chapter 23|9 pages

Soft Natural Theology

part IV|40 pages

Plurality of Religions Religious Interpretations

chapter 24|10 pages

The Convergence of Religions

chapter 25|13 pages

A Contemplation of Absolutes

chapter 27|5 pages

Pluralism

part V|55 pages

Plurality of Religions Ethico-Political Implications

part VI|11 pages

Conclusion

chapter 32|9 pages

An Ultimate Vision