Huston Smith, author of world religions text, dies at age 97
Huston Smith, author of the popular textbook The World’s Religions, died December 30 at age 97. He died at home in Berkeley, California, “after a long illness,” according to his website.
Initially published in 1958, his textbook has sold 3 million copies.
“What Smith . . . brought to the discipline of religious studies was both a deep respect for religious traditions other than his own Methodist version of Christianity, and great humility about what can be known in any final way and what, by contrast, requires faith,” wrote Bill Tammeus, a religion journalist and former columnist for the Kansas City Star, in a commentary for Religion News Service. “Smith sought to understand religions by getting inside of them and seeing what makes them tick.”
