The legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith / edited by Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and Arvind Sharma.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Aitken, Ellen Bradshaw, 1961-2014, editor.

Sharma, Arvind, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, 1916-2000.

Smith, Wilfred Cantwell.

Islam.

College teachers--Biography.

College teachers.

Religions--Study and teaching.

Religions.

Genre:

Biographies.

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

vi, 254 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017]

Summary:

This is the first work to address the legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916-2000), whose intellectual and institutional contributions helped shape the field of religious studies in the latter half of the twentieth century. As a young scholar, Smith taught Indian and Islamic history in Lahore for several years and witnessed the partition of India. Upon his return to North America, he obtained his PhD at Princeton University before embarking upon a long and distinguished career. He founded the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University and served as director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. Smith emphasized the place of the scholarly study of Islam in the Western academy long before Islam occupied its current position at the center of global politics, challenged the notion of monolithic world religions, and argued for the importance of dialogical processes and a personalist approach to the study of religion. Contributors to this volume, many of whom were Smith's students, provide a wide-ranging exploration of his influence and legacy. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction / Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and Arvind Sharma

Religious Studies-The Academic and Moral Challenge : Personal Reflections on the Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith / Diana L. Eck

Wilfred Cantwell Smith : Academic Architect / John B. Carman

The Meaningful "End" of God, Faith, and Scripture / Purushottama Bilimoria

Anticipating the Emergence of "Contemplative Studies" : Reflections on the Work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith / Thomas B. Coburn

Faith and Belief Revisited / Harvey Cox

Wilfred Cantwell Smith and "Orientalism" / William A. Graham

Enabling Antinomies : Tensions and Tensile Strength in Wilfred Cantwell Smith / John Stratton Hawley

Who Cares If the Qur'an Is the Word of God? W. C. Smith's Charge to the Aspiring Public Intellectual / Jonathan R. Herman

Towards a Hermeneutic of Humanity : Wilfred Cantwell Smith and the Study of Muslims / Amir Hussain

Wilfred Cantwell Smith in Lahore 1940

1951 / Sheila McDonough

Diagnosis Rather than Dialogue as the Best Way to Study Religion / Robert A. Segal

Wilfred Smith's Prophetic Sense of History and Proposal Regarding Verification / Peter Slater

Study of Religion as Study of Religious Persons / K. R. Sundararajan

The Moral Imagination of Wilfred Cantwell Smith / Donald K. Swearer.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-242) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith

ISBN:

9781438464695

143846469X

OCLC:

961801007