The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith

All religions, at their core, are the same; this remarkable claim is made by Huston Smith, bestselling author and professor of comparative religion at Syracuse University, MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. Raised a Methodist, Smith also practices yoga, prays five times daily as Muslims do, and joyfully joins his daughter and her Jewish husband in observing the Sabbath. He has traveled around the world 10 times, visiting ashrams and temples, synagogues and mosques, zen masters and swamies.

His book The World’s Religions has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide since 1959, and is considered one of the defining treatises on the subject. In this series of conversations with renowned journalist Bill Moyers, Smith provides thoughtful insights into the world’s largest religions with these compelling episodes: Hinduism and Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity and Judaism, Islam, and A Personal Philosophy — and how, taken at their best, they provide universal truths that unite and define the human spirit. (1996)

WATCH THE SERIES

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC BROADCATING

  • March 26, 1996 | The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith
    The religious historian takes us from India to Tibet to Japan to explore two great religions — Hinduism and Buddhism.
  • April 2, 1996 | The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith
    Confucius was no God, but his teachings were the invisible mortar holding together a society containing one quarter of the world's population.
  • April 9, 1996 | The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith
    The religious historian considers the "dense and palpable" spirit of Christianity and the intimate relationship between Jews and their God.
  • April 16, 1996 | The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith
    The religious historian on Islamic conceptions of order, justice, mercy, and compassion.
  • April 23, 1996
    Author and professor Huston Smith on recognizing the vitality in all spiritual traditions, using his own remarkable explorations as an example.