Roderick Ninian Smart (6 May 1927 – 29 January 2001)[1][2] was a Scottish writer and university educator. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies. He is best known for his seven-dimensional definition of religion.
In 1967 he established the first department of religious studies in the United Kingdom at the new University of Lancaster where he was also Pro-Vice-Chancellor, having already chaired one of the largest and most prestigious departments of theology in Britain at the University of Birmingham. In 1976, he became the first J.F. Rowny Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions at University of California, Santa Barbara. Smart presented the Gifford Lectures in 1979–80. In 1996, he was named the Academic Senate's research professor, the highest professorial rank at UC Santa Barbara. In 2000, he was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, while simultaneously retaining his status as president of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace. Smart held both titles at the time of his death.
Smart became widely known outside the academy, at least in Britain, when he was editorial consultant for the major BBC television series, The Long Search (1977). His book The World's Religions (1989) also reached a considerable popular readership. His defence of religious studies as a secular discipline helped the formation of departments in many public universities, especially in the United States. He distanced religious studies from traditional theology in that evaluating truth claims and apology have no role but regarded investigation into the "truth and worth" of religion per se as a valid academic enterprise in the public arena of state-funded education.[3]
^Saxon, Wolfgang (25 February 2001). "Ninian Smart, 73, Author and Scholar of Comparative Religion". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
^Hecht, Richard. "IN MEMORIAM Roderick Ninian Smart". University of California Academic Senate. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
Roderick NinianSmart (6 May 1927 – 29 January 2001) was a Scottish writer and university educator. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious...
where it was pioneered by phenomenological scholars of religion such as NinianSmart. It was designed to broaden the study of religion away from its heavy...
therein. NinianSmart. The World's Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations. Cambridge University Press. 1989. p. 376 NinianSmart. The World's...
that there is no global truth. For instance, the religious philosopher NinianSmart begins his Worldviews: Cross-cultural Explorations of Human Beliefs with...
Institute Of Oriental Culture, University Of Tokyo. Shephard, John (2009). NinianSmart On World Religions. Ashgate. ISBN 978-0754666387. Biernacki, Loriliai...
in India and Southeast Asia Authors- David L. Gosling, NinianSmart, Contributor- NinianSmart, Edition-illustrated, Publisher- Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-24030-1...
Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press (1997) on line table of contents NinianSmart, Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Belief (New Jersey:...
utilitarianism" was introduced by R. NinianSmart in 1958 in his reply to Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies. Smart also presented the most famous...
who worked and influenced phenomenology of religion are Henry Corbin, NinianSmart, Mircea Eliade, and C. Jouco Bleeker. Postmodern Christianity Sacred-profane...
State University of New York Press. pp. 308–309. ISBN 978-1-4384-6055-0. NinianSmart (2013). The Yogi and the Devotee (Routledge Revivals): The Interplay...
history of India. Others who were notably influenced by him include NinianSmart, and Benjamin Walker. Dayananda Saraswati wrote more than 60 works. This...
Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices, edited by John R. Hinnels & NinianSmart. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26606-2. p. 24 Devendra (Muni.), T...
An article (p. 555) under the heading "mysticism," and contributed by NinianSmart, J. F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religion, University of California...
and Religion). In the forward to Approaches to the Study of Religion, NinianSmart wrote that "in the English-speaking world [religious studies] basically...
talking about Shinto as a specific phenomenon. The scholar of religion NinianSmart suggested that one could "speak of the kami religion of Japan, which...
Oriental Culture Special Series, 23, pp. 276–277. John Shephard (2009), NinianSmart On World Religions, Ashgate, ISBN 978-0754666387, p. 186. Hiltebeitel...
the work of NinianSmart has also been instrumental in representing a more diverse understanding of religion and religious pluralism. Smart's view is that...
Other Works, trans. by A. C. Spearing (London: Penguin, 2001), p. xviii; NinianSmart, 'What Would Buddhaghosa Have Made of The Cloud of Unknowing?', in Mysticism...
United States, Egypt, Indonesia, and South Africa. Scholar of religion NinianSmart acted as editorial consultant to the show, and also authored a companion...
through the seven "dimensions of religion" set forward by the scholar NinianSmart and also decided that Scientology met those criteria for being a religion...
Robert Detweiler 1998: Judith Plaskow 1999: Margaret R. Miles 2000: NinianSmart 2001: Rebecca Chopp 2002: Vasudha Narayanan 2003: Robert Orsi 2004: Jane...
"not coming into existence", "not taking effect", "non-production". NinianSmart, a historian of religion, quotes Mudgal view that "the differences between...
is not being used to mean "something that is false". majestic plural NinianSmart (2007). "Polytheism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica...
Eccles The Human Mystery and The Human Psyche ISBN 0-387-09954-9 1979–80 NinianSmart The Varieties of Religious Identity, published as Beyond Ideology: Religion...
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