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On the Other Hand Appreciating ‘Wisdom Traditions’ of the World
One of the most widely admired books on religion in the last half-century was written by Huston Smith. When it first came out in 1958 as The Religions of Man, Eisenhower was in the White House, Billy Graham had only recently held his first nationally-televised crusade, Reinhold Niebuhr was still the rage in Protestant theology, Pius XII was coming to the end of his reign in Rome, and the word “ecumenical” had not yet entered the linguistic mainstream. Over a million and a half copies of Smith’s book were sold, partly because it had little competition. It was a remarkably broad work that catalogued in easily-readable prose the religions of the world. Many college students in the following quarter-century or so encountered it in Intro to Religion courses, where they were invited to become familiar with an array of belief-systems and ritual-behaviors that few knew of first-hand. Reviewers sang its praises as “the best… the most accessible… the most helpful book of its kind… the first adequate textbook… brilliant.” The field of religious studies, however, was under-going comprehensive transformation even as Smith’s book was riding high. It came as no surprise, therefore, when it was announced in 1991 that he had completed a full revision and had changed the title to make it more properly inclusive as The World’s Religions. There was new material on Sikhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism, as well as new sections on “The Confucian Project,” on “Messianism” (in Judaism), and a report on the renewed search for the historical Jesus in Christianity. Needless to say, the praises for the original version were even more applicable, guaranteeing that the revision would also quickly become a best-seller. During his distinguished career, Huston Smith spent at least a decade each at Washington University, at MIT, and at Syracuse University. When the 1991 revision of his book came out, he had retired and was a visiting professor at his alma mater, UC-Berkeley. One lifelong trademark of his work was his interest in mastering all he could about each of the great world religions, but taking care to do so without making odious comparisons. Each tradition, he insisted, has its own validity and values, and ought to be appreciated in and of itself, not as compared with or judged by the standards of some other tradition. One of the most useful ways in which he promoted this approach was by inviting the reader to think of world religions as “wisdom traditions.” He says at the very start that his book could just as appropriately been entitled “The World’s Great Wisdom Traditions.” He had no intention of denying that much stupidity has always plagued religions, and that great evils have at times been perpetrated in the name of religion. But he left that to the historians to work out, document, and relate in detail. He saw his job as that of trying to “skim off the cream of that history: the truths that they preserve and by which they are empowered.” The assumptions that underlie such an approach are vintage Huston Smith. He was convinced that as “wisdom traditions,” the great world religions have to do with providing a vision for meaningful living. At the end of the book he pointed to three pillars on which his claims rested: The TAPESTRY claim, i.e., that left to ourselves, we have no view of the whole of life, and in fact tend to distort what we do see (thus looking at the wrong side of the tapestry), while the wisdom traditions affirm that the full picture makes far more sense than we can suppose. The SURPLUS claim is similar, i.e., these traditions affirm that there is much more to life than meets the eye. As he grandly put it, these traditions “flame with ontological exuberance.” This is what leaves the secularist behind and makes the theologian come up with words like ‘grace’ and ‘hope’ as necessities for expressing part of the reality at the very heart of things. But, lest any tradition overstep its bounds, they are all marked by: The MYSTERY claim, i.e., at their best they never profess to have all the answers. “We are born in mystery, we live in mystery, we die in mystery… What we know, and our realization of what we do not know, proceed together: the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.” Smith’s classic led to a fascinating five-part PBS TV series with Bill Moyers in 1996. Yet Smith was not about to rest on his laurels. He launched a wide-ranging challenge to the reductionism prevailing in so much of modern academia. In explaining Why Religion Matters: the Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief (2001), he took on all comers in an unusually engaging manner, illustrating again his lifelong gift of creativity. Then in 2005, at the age of 86, he came full circle, offering fresh insight into The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition. He is a relic of an earlier age who marvelously continues to shine his light on the wisdom of every age.
Jim Megivern is Professor Emeritus in Philosophy and Religion at UNC Wilmington. He is a contributing founder of CCV and a regular columnist.
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Carolina Civic Voice Summer 2006 Vol. 6, No 2 |