Ninian Smart on World Religions

Volume 2: Traditions and the Challenges of Modernity

John J. Shepherd

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780815390718
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351152389
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

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.

Appendix 1
Additional Publications by Ninian Smart

Virtually all of the items listed below have been published, and full details are available in the Ninian Smart Bibliography in Appendix 2: [A] books; [B] papers in edited books; [C] papers in journals or published as pamphlets. (The bibliography is also available on the Ashgate website.) A few, though, are to be found only in typescript in the Ninian Smart Archive located in Lancaster University Library. They are referred to according to their location as listed in the Archive Catalogue, which is available on-line on the website of the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University. The entries are grouped by section.

I Individual Traditions

The Religious Experience of Mankind (1969, second edition 1976, third edition 1984, fourth edition 1991, fifth edition 1996 – the last two editions under the title The Religions Experience)

Background to the Long Search (1977, and as The Long Search, 1978)

Sacred Texts of the World: A Universal Anthology (1982)

Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs (1983, second edition 1995)

The World's Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations (1989, second edition 1998)

Religions of Asia (1993)

Religions of the West (1994)

Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World's Beliefs (1996)

World Philosophies (1999)

Atlas of the World's Religions (1999)

(i) Buddhism

Learning From Other Faiths: Buddhism (1972) [C]

Problems of the Application of Western Terminology to Theravada Buddhism with Special Reference to the Relationship Between the Buddha and the Gods (1972) [C]

Precept and Theory in Sri Lanka (1973) [D]

Living Liberation: Jivanmukti and Nirvana (1973) [B]

Nirvana and Timelessness (1976) [C]

Action and Suffering in the Theravadin Tradition (1984) [C]

The Buddha (1997) [B]

A Survey of Buddhist Thought (1997) [B]

The Two Faces of Buddhism (Archive F4)

The Contribution of Buddhism to the Philosophy of Religion (Archive F4)

The Genius of Theravada Buddhism (Archive F6)

The Menander Enquiry: A Dialogue Between a Greek King and the Buddhist Monk Nagasena (Archive F6)

[See too Volume 1, Section 4]

(ii) Hinduism

Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy (1964; second edition, 1992)

Prophet of a New Hindu Age: The Life and Times of Acharya Pranavananda (1985)

Sri Aurobindo and History (1961) [C]

Sankara and the West (1969/1970) [B]

The Meaning of Hinduism (1972) [C]

The Making of Early Hinduism (1978) [B]

Classical Hindu Philosophy and Theology (1978) [B]

An Analysis of Hinduism in the Modern World (1986) [B]

Reflections on the Sources of Knowledge in the Indian Tradition (1989) [B]

Swami Vivekananda: Where Are You When We Need You? (1994) [B|

Response to Brian K. Smith: Re-Envisioning Hinduism (1996) [C]

Hinduism (1997) [B]

The Theory of Knowledge and the Indian Point of View (Archive F6)

(iii) Chinese Religions/Worldviews

Mao (1974)

A Reply to Dr. Shen's Reply (1976) [C]

Discontinuities and Continuities Between Mao Zedong Thought and the Traditional Religions of China (1990) [C]

(iv) Christianity

The Phenomenon of Christianity (1979), also as In Search of Christianity discovering the Diverse Vitality of Christian Life (1979)

The Uniqueness of Christianity (1974) [C]

How to Understand Myth: A Christian Case (1974) [C]

How to Study Christianity (Archive F6)

(vi) Shamanism

The Religions of Small Societies (1994) [C]

II Worldview Analysis: Religions in the Modern World

Beyond Ideology: Religion and the Future of Western Civilization (1981, 1982)

Religion and Politics in the Modern World (1983)

Ethical and Political Dilemmas of Modern India (1993)

Religion and Nationalism: The Urgency of Transnational Spirituality and Toleration (1994)

Nationalism, Identity, and a More Secure World Order (1979) [C]

Religions and Changing Values (1979) [B]

Religion, Myth and Nationalism (1980) [C]

Pacific Ocean and the Future of Religion (1981) [C]

Asian Cultures and the Impact of the West: India and China (1982) [B]

The Future of Religion (1983) [B]

A Theory of Religious and Ideological Change: Illustrated from Modern South Asian and Other Nationalisms (1984) [C]

The Dynamics of Religious and Political Change: Illustrations from South Asia (1984) [C]

Christianity and Nationalism (1984) [C]

The Pacific Mind: A Proposal (1985) [B]

The Future of Religions (1985) [C]

National and Secular Festivals (1986) [B]

Three Forms of Religious Convergence (1987) [B]

Reflections on the Future of Religion (1989) [B]

India, Sri Lanka and Religion (1989) [B]

Church, Party and State (1989)[B]

Old Religions and New Religions: The Lessons of the Colonial Era (1991) [B]

Religions in the Contemporary World (1992) [B]

Religion and Politics (1993) [B]

Sacred Nationalism (1995) [B]

The Responses of Religions to Modernism and Colonialism (1996) [B]

From the Rio Grande to Tierra Del Fuego: The Religious History of Central and South America (1997) [B]

Tradition, Retrospective Perception, Nationalism and Modernism (1998) [B]

Implicit Religion Across Culture (1998) [C]

Religion and Globalization (1999) [C]

The Global Future of Religion (2003) [B]

Worldview Analysis and Alexander Haig (Archive F4)

The Response of World Religions to Modernity (Archive F4)

A Phenomenology of Fundamentalisms (Archive F4)

Religion and Colonialism: The Reshaping of Eastern Cultures to Resist the West (Archive F4)

Religious Studies and the Emerging World Civilization (Archive F6)

III Christian Theology of Religions and Interfaith Dialogue

The Yogi and the Devotee: The Interplay between the Upanishads and Catholic Theology (1968)

Christian Systematic Theology in a World Context (1991)

Buddhism and Christianity: Rivals and Allies (1993)

Lights of the World: Buddha and Christ (1997)

Being and the Bible (1956) [C]

Revelation and Reasons (1958) [C]

Eight Propositions Against the Prevailing Narrowness in Theology (1960) [C]

Theology, Philosophy and the Natural Sciences (1962) [C]

The Christian and Other Religions (1962) [C]

Christ and the Buddha – Rivals? (1962) [C]

Christianity Amid the Great Religions (1965) [C]

Theology and Other Religions (1965) [B]

Towards a Systematic Future for Theology (1966) [C]

What are the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Ninian Smart (1927-2001)
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• I: INDIVIDUAL TRADITIONS
• II: WORLDVIEW ANALYSIS: RELIGIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD
• III: CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY OF RELIGIONS AND INTERFAITH DIALOGUE
• IV: PLURALITY OF RELIGIONS: RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATIONS
• V: PLURALITY OF RELIGIONS: ETHICO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS
• VI: CONCLUSION
• Appendix 1: Additional Publications by Ninian Smart
• Appendix 2: The Ninian Smart Archive and Bibliography
• Name Index