Religions of the World

Judaism, Taoism, Christianity, Primal Religions, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Hinduism

By: Huston Smith

Narrated by: Huston Smith

For half of the 20th century, Huston Smith covered the world seeking answers to the supreme questions in life: Why are we here? What do we really want? What does it all mean?

From humble village temples to glinting mosques and towering cathedrals, Smith has uncovered the spiritual treasures buried beneath thousands of years of historical and scientific distortions. Now, in his own words, Smith shares the true story of his epic search for the seeds of wisdom in Religions of the World.

Huston Smith's intent is to awaken the fullness of our humanity - to encourage us to break free from the narrow corridors of orthodox theology and awaken us to the values and beliefs that allow us to triumph as people and as cultures. For this is not the story of religious institutions but of the eternal truths that inspire them, as viewed through the eyes of this great scholar, teacher, and author.

With Huston Smith as your personal guide, you will examine the defining perspectives within the world's central religions - the teachings that have touched his own life directly - and learn how these traditions differ while retaining a common interior language that speaks to our highest aspirations. Religions of the World looks beyond information, beyond doctrine and dogma, into the wisdom at the very heart of these great traditions: Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, primal religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam.

Here is perhaps the greatest story ever told: how religion comes alive and lights the way with a sacred flame, bringing the secret of joy into the darkest corners of the human soul.

©2007 Huston Smith (P)2007 Huston Smith

Put on 1.5x speed!

Huston talks slowly, put on 1.5x speed.. sounds normal. Great and informative book about all major religions.

The weakness

The book has strength in some areas and extremely weak in other areas. Regarding Judaism, the religion of Jewish people, he misses the importance of its anti dogmatic approach as well as the lack of a theology and the focus on personal interpretation.

Christianity values the moment when the person feels the charismatic presence of the savior enters his/her life, Judaism distrusts the charismatic. This oppose to the Jewish idea of free being. Something he didn’t seem to understand.

He talks about commandments, but misses the concept of the obligation each one has to the other:

On conversion, while the majority of Jews are liberal, he brings a concept which is upheld only by the very few. Not sure if he gets influenced by politics.

On Islam, he misses most of the major philosophers from the Middle ages which provided great insights. He spends too much time on rituals.

One last point, it is beautiful to talk about religion as a mental abstraction but he misses the importance of domination in the expansion of their religious empires.

Knowledge

Great course with fresh look at the major world religions. Course narrator spoke slowly and I had to increase speed to 1.35 and was perfect.

Very good insight

I found this to be a great book with wonderful insights. I would not recommend it as a first book to learn about world religions but it provides a lot of interesting perspectives if you already have a basic knowledge of the great religions. One tip: listen on 1.5-2x speed as Dr. Smith speaks very slowly :)

Material Great Narration Poor

Huston Smith's explanations, concepts, thoughts and observations are great.  He has a wonderful grasp of the subject and understands the nuances and points them out.


His narration is one of the worst I have encountered on an Audible recording. He doesn't do justice to his own audio book.. I enjoyed this audio book in spite of Huston Smith's narration not because of it.


I understand these are a series of lectures.  It would do this course more justice if it was transcribed and narrated by a professional narrator.