My First Blog Entry

So, I'm new to blogging. I'm currently trying to catch up on a few of the classics of religious studies, by scholars such as Huston Smith, Mircea Eliade, and Ninian Smart. My plan is to read a chapter and then write a response to it, in order to better formulate my ideas and thoughts about the reading and whether or not I agree with the opinion of the author. This will be good for me because I'll have a goal in mind while reading leisurely. In a way, I'm giving myself the assignment to read for pleasure and reflect upon it.

I'm going to begin with "The World Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions" by Huston Smith. First published in 1958, some of his ideas will likely be outdated in comparison to the commonly accepted understanding of modern scholars of religious studies. The primary reason I am interested in reading his work is because my religious studies professor said that Smith basically assumes all religions to be generally the same and to be reaching for the same ultimate goal. I think this is an interesting concept, because all people do seem to be striving to gain a greater knowledge of god, or at least an understanding of why the world is the way it is and what, if anything, will happen after death. Anyway, my professor said that Smith is "putting us all out of business" by saying that all religions are the same. Even if all religions serve the same purpose for humans, they arose from different cultural and historical backgrounds, making them fundamentally different from each other. On the other hand, if all religions do seek the same goal yet arise from such different cultures and philosophies, then that says something about an inherent human need for god, which is deserving of examination in and of itself.

Anyway, here's the link to the book on Amazon, where a summary and reviews are available.