Huston Cummings Smith (born May 31, 1919) is among the preeminent religious studies scholars in the United States. Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Religious studies, or Religious education, is the academic field of multi-disciplinary Secular study of religious beliefs behaviors and institutions The United States of America —commonly referred to as the His work, The Religions of Man (later revised and retitled The World's Religions), is a classic in the field, with over two million copies sold, and remains a common introduction to comparative religion. Comparative religion is a field of Religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes myths rituals and concepts among the world's religions
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Life
Smith was born in Soochow, China to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. Suzhou ( ancient name 吳) is a City on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Methodism is a movement within Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Denver from 1944–1947, moving to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for the next ten years, and then Professor of Philosophy at MIT from 1958–1973. The University of Colorado at Boulder ( CU-Boulder, UCB officially Colorado and CU colloquially is the Flagship University The University of Denver ( DU) founded in 1864 is the oldest private University in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. While at MIT he participated in some of the experiments with entheogens that professor Timothy Leary conducted at Harvard University. An entheogen, in the strictest sense is a Psychoactive substance used in a religious or shamanic (or entheogenic) context Timothy Francis Leary ( October 22, 1920 &ndash May 31, 1996) was an American Writer, Psychologist, Futurist He then moved to Syracuse University where he was Thomas J. Syracuse University (SU is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status. He now lives in the Berkeley, CA area where he is Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley
During his career, Smith not only studied, but practiced Vedanta Hinduism, Zen Buddhism (studying under Goto Zuigan), and Sufism for over ten years each. Vedanta ( Devanagari: sa वेदान्त Vedānta) is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the Self-realisation Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism, referred to in Chinese as Chan. Goto Zuigan ( 後藤 瑞巌, 1879 — 1965) was a Rinzai master and former chief abbot of Myoshin-ji and of Daitoku-ji, at Sufism ( تصوّف - taṣawwuf, Persian: صوفیگری sufigari, Turkish: tasavvuf, Urdu: تصوف He is a notable autodidact. Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) is self-education or self-directed learning
As a young man, of his own volition after suddenly turning to mysticism, Smith set out to meet with then-famous author Gerald Heard. Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Henry Fitzgerald Heard commonly called Gerald Heard ( October 6, 1889 - August 14, 1971) was a historian science writer educator Heard responded to Smith's letter, invited him to his Trabuco College (later donated as the Ramakrishna Monastery) in Southern California, and then sent him off to meet the legendary Aldous Huxley. Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 &ndash 22 November 1963 was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. So began Smith's experimentation with meditation and association with the Vedanta Society in Saint Louis under the auspices of Swami Satprakashananda of the Ramakrishna order. Vedanta Society, and its variant Vedanta Centre, are terms covering organizations groups or societies formed for the study practice and propagation of Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ( Bangla: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo) ( February 18, 1836 -
Via the connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith eventually experimented with Timothy Leary and others at the Center for Personality Research, of which Leary was Research Professor. Timothy Francis Leary ( October 22, 1920 &ndash May 31, 1996) was an American Writer, Psychologist, Futurist The experience and history of the era are captured somewhat in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception. In this period, Smith joined in on the Harvard Project as well, an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants. The Harvard Psilocybin Project was a series of loose experiments in psychology conducted by Dr An entheogen, in the strictest sense is a Psychoactive substance used in a religious or shamanic (or entheogenic) context
He has been a friend of the XIVth Dalai Lama for more than forty years and met and talked to some of the great figures of the century, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Thomas Merton.
He developed an interest in the Traditionalist School formulated by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy. The Traditionalist School of thought also known as Integral Traditionalism (in the sense of Integralism) or Perennialism (in the sense of Perennial René Guénon ( November 15 1886 – January 7 1951) was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி 22 August, 1877, Colombo - 9 September, 1947, This interest has become a continuing thread in all his writings.
In 1996, Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith. Bill Moyers (born June 5, 1934, as William Donald "Billy Don" Moyers) is an American Journalist and public commentator " Smith has produced three series for public television: "The Religions of Man," "The Search for America," and (with Arthur Compton) "Science and Human Responsibility. " His films on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won awards at international film festivals.
His latest DVD release is The Roots of Fundamentalism - A Conversation with Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau.
Awards
For his life long commitment to bringing the world’s religions together to promote understanding, social justice and peace, Smith received the Courage of Conscience Award from the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts [1].
Books
- The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions, 1958, rev. ed. 1991, Harper SanFrancisco, ISBN 0-06-250811-3
- Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World's Religions, 1976, reprint ed. 1992, Harper SanFrancisco, ISBN 0-06-250787-7
- Beyond the Postmodern Mind, 1982, reprint ed. 1989, Quest Books, ISBN 0-8356-0647-3
- The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions,1995,Harper Collins,ISBN 0-06-067440-7
- Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals, 2000, Tarcher/Putnam, ISBN 1-58542-034-4, Council on Spiritual Practices, ISBN 1-889725-03-X, Sentient Publications, ISBN 1-59181-008-6
- Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief, 2001, Harper San Francisco, 1st ed. :ISBN 0-06-067099-1, reprint 2002: ISBN 0-06-067102-5
- The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life, 2003, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-23816-8 (cloth); ISBN 0-520-24489-3 (paper)
- Buddhism: A Concise Introduction, with Philip Novak, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004, ISBN 0-06-073067-6
- The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition, 2005, HarperSanFrancisco, 1st ed. ISBN 0-06-079478-X
- A Seat at the Table: Huston Smith in Conversation with Native Americans on Religious Freedom, 2006, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-24439-7 (cloth)
Quotes
"Religiously conceived, the human opportunity is to transform flashes of illumination into abiding light. "
"Institutions are not pretty. Show me a pretty government. Healing is wonderful, but the American Medical Association? Learning is wonderful, but universities? The same is true for religion. The American Medical Association (AMA founded in 1847 and incorporated 1897 is the largest association of Physicians and Medical students in the United States . . religion is institutionalized spirituality. " — Mother Jones November/December 1997. Mother Jones is an independent Nonprofit Magazine rooted in liberal political values and known for its Investigative reporting
External links
- Huston Smith homepage
- Interview in Mother Jones magazine
- Interview transcript from Thinking Allowed PBS television program
- Video interview on Google Video
- Some mp3 files of a talk about Gnosticism
- Critical review of Why Religion Matters
- LibraryThing author profile
- Interview with Robert Wright
- The Peace Abbey
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Smith, Huston Cummings |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Religious studies scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Suzhou, China |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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