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|2 pages

Autobiographical

chapter 1|18 pages

'Methods in My Life'

part II|2 pages

Religious Experience and the Logic of Religious Discourse

chapter 3|14 pages

'Empiricism and Religions'

chapter 4|12 pages

'Understanding Religious Experience'

part III|2 pages

Mystical Experience

part IV|2 pages

Comparative Studies

part V|2 pages

Religious Studies and Religious Education: Method and Theory in The Study of Religions

part VI|2 pages

Religious Ethics