Huston Smith Religions
Introduction The world contains a variety of scriptures, prophets, holy cities, and spiritual traditions. There are probably as many reasons to study the religions of the world as there are believers and seekers, doubters and devotees.
One reason might be to bring greater understanding to a planet dangerously divided by competing claims of faith. Religious violence and persecution have escalated to the point where the United Nations now reports that almost half of the armed conflicts raging on the earth at any moment are holy wars, leading some international experts to predict that the major threats to peace in the post-cold war era will come not from conflicts between secular states or ideologies, but from the clash of religious orthodoxies. If we are to achieve peace, it is critical to come to a deeper appreciation of people whose folkways and faithways differ from our own.
Another reason to study world religions might be to learn to relate respectfully to others within our own heterogeneous communities. The days when North Americans could be comfortably classified according to Will Herberg’s typology of Protestant, Catholic, and Jew are long gone (if such a time ever actually existed). Our next door neighbors and children’s classmates are increasingly likely to be Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu, and we risk becoming parochial in outlook unless we deliberately extend our horizons to embrace the diversity that characterizes our society.
The most common motive for such a study may be more personal, however. Through an encounter with other faiths, it is to be hoped that we will find resources to live with greater wisdom and serenity. Fewer people today are willing to accept uncritically the religion of their parents and past generations. More are determined to explore the teachings and insights of other faiths. This is certainly true for most Unitarian Universalists.
Religious liberals have a long history of interest in other spiritual traditions. Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson were among the first of their contemporaries to inquire into the sacred writings of Asia. The Unitarian author Lydia Maria Child wrote one of the earliest histories of the world’s religions—The Progress of Religious Ideas Through Successive Ages, published in 1855—scandalizing many of her readers with the suggestion that Christianity had no monopoly on divine truth. That perspective is typical of our movement, and continues to inform us. It is the premise behind this study guide.
This is intended as an adult reading and discussion course centered on Huston Smith’s perennial classic, The World’s Religions (first published under the title The Religions of Man in 1958). In the decades since it first appeared, this book has remained continuously in print, inspiring millions of readers with sympathetic treatments of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and the primal religions.
One of the great strengths of Smith’s approach is that he has made complex and arcane issues accessible to the layperson seeking a brief introduction to major world faith traditions. Some distinctions and details are necessarily lost in such an overview, and for opportunities to go deeper into each faith, see Resources at the back of this guide. Because each chapter is comparatively brief, it is well suited to reading on a weekly basis. This guide follows the text chapter by chapter and offers a list of questions for small group discussion. Page numbers that are cited refer to the 1991 edition of The World’s Religions, published by Harper-SanFrancisco. Each participant will need a copy of this book to read the relevant material before each session. Participants will doubtless formulate their own lists of questions, but the ones here will provide a starting point sufficient for a one-and-a-half or two-hour weekly session. In addition, a quotation from each of the traditions is included at the beginning and end of each session, which may be used as a focus for an opening or closing meditation. Finally, guidelines for leading dynamic discussion groups follow this introduction.
Our Unitarian Universalist principles observe that our faith draws from many sources, including “that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit, and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” My hope is that this study guide will help others, in some small way, to glimpse that wondrous mystery, in all its manifold disguises.
I close with these words from Mohandas K. Gandhi—a Hindu whose study of the Christian Bible and of Western thinkers like Henry David Thoreau informed his own philosophy of nonviolence, and who in turn inspired countless others of every faith:
“I hold that it is the duty of every cultured man or woman to read sympathetically the scriptures of the world. If we are to respect other’s religions as we would have them respect our own, a friendly study of the world’s religions is a sacred duty.”
The Reverend Gary Kowalski
Contents
Session 1: Hinduism
Session 2: Buddhism
Session 3: Confucianism
Session 4: Taoism
Session 5: Islam
Session 6: Judaism
Session 7: Christianity
Session 8: Primal Religions
Session 9: A Final Examination
Resources