Ellen Bradshaw Aitken & Arvind Sharma 
The Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith 

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 Ph D at Princeton University before embarking upon a long and distinguished career. He founded the Institute of Islamic Studies at Mc Gill 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.

Tabela de Conteúdo

Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and
Arvind Sharma

Introduction




Diana L. Eck

Religious Studies—The Academic and Moral Challenge: Personal Reflections on the Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith




John B. Carman

Wilfred Cantwell Smith: Academic Architect




Purushottama Bilimoria

The Meaningful “End” of God, Faith, and Scripture




Thomas B. Coburn

Anticipating the Emergence of “Contemplative Studies”: Reflections on the Work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith




Harvey Cox

Faith and Belief Revisited




William A. Graham

Wilfred Cantwell Smith and “Orientalism”




John Stratton Hawley

Enabling Antinomies: Tensions and Tensile Strength in Wilfred Cantwell Smith




Jonathan R. Herman

Who Cares If the Qur’an Is the Word of God? W. C. Smith’s Charge to the Aspiring Public Intellectual




Amir Hussain

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




Sheila Mc Donough

Wilfred Cantwell Smith in Lahore 1940–1951




Robert A. Segal

Diagnosis Rather than Dialogue as the Best Way to Study Religion




Peter Slater

Wilfred Smith’s Prophetic Sense of History and Proposal Regarding Verification




K. R. Sundararajan

Study of Religion as Study of Religious Persons




Donald K. Swearer

The Moral Imagination of Wilfred Cantwell Smith



Wilfred Cantwell Smith: A Bibliography



Contributors

Index

Sobre o autor

Ellen Aitken (1961–2014) was the Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies at Mc Gill University.
Arvind Sharma is Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at Mc Gill University and the author of many books, including
One Religion Too Many: The Religiously Comparative Reflections of a Comparatively Religious Hindu;
Hinduism as a Missionary Religion; and
Religious Studies and Comparative Methodology: The Case for Reciprocal Illumination, all also published by SUNY Press.