The World's Religions

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Overview

The World's Religions by Huston Smith is one of the most widely read introductions to comparative religion in English. First published in 1958 under the title The Religions of Man and later retitled, it surveys the major traditions through sympathetic description, giving each a chapter that tries to convey what it is like to see the world from inside that faith. It matters because it has introduced generations of students and general readers to religious diversity, and because it shows both the strengths and limits of an insider-sympathetic approach.

Context

Smith was an American philosopher of religion, born in China in 1919 to missionary parents, who taught at institutions including MIT and Syracuse University. The book appeared during the Cold War, when interest in Asian religions was growing in the United States, and it helped to shape how a popular western audience approached them. It was expanded and revised over later decades.