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Wilfred Cantwell Smith

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The Reverend
Wilfred Cantwell Smith
OC FRSC
Born(1916-07-21)21 July 1916
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died7 February 2000(2000-02-07) (aged 83)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other namesW. C. Smith[1]
Spouse
Muriel Struthers
​
(m. 1939)​
[2]
Children
Ecclesiastical career
ReligionChristianity (Presbyterian)
Church
Ordained1944[3]
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisThe Azhar Journal: Analysis and Critique[5] (1948)
Doctoral advisorPhilip K. Hitti[3]
Other advisors
Influences
Academic work
DisciplineReligious studies
Sub-discipline
Institutions
Main interestsReligious pluralism
Notable worksThe Meaning and End of Religion (1961)
Influenced

Wilfred Cantwell Smith OC FRSC[15] (July 21, 1916 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian Islamicist, comparative religion scholar,[16] and Presbyterian minister.[17] He was the founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Quebec and later the director of Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions. The Harvard University Gazette said he was one of the field's most influential figures of the past century.[18] In his 1962 work The Meaning and End of Religion he notably questioned the modern sectarian concept of religion.[19]

Early Life and Career[edit]

Smith was born on 21 July 1916 in Toronto, Ontario, to parents Victor Arnold Smith and Sarah Cory Cantwell.[20] He was the younger brother of Arnold Smith[21] and the father of Brian Cantwell Smith.[2] He primarily received his secondary education at Upper Canada College.[6]

Smith studied at University College, Toronto,[22] receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in oriental languages circa 1938.[23] After his thesis was rejected by the University of Cambridge,[24] supposedly for its Marxist critique of the British Raj, he and his wife Muriel Mackenzie Struthers spent seven years in pre-independence India (1940–1946), during which he taught Indian and Islamic history at Forman Christian College in Lahore.

In 1948 he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in oriental languages at Princeton University, after which he taught at McGill, founding in 1952 the university's Institute of Islamic Studies.[3] During this period, he invited Ismail al-Faruqi to join the Institute, where al-Faruqi taught from 1958 to 1961.[25] From 1964 to 1973 Smith taught at Harvard Divinity School.[26] He left Harvard for Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he founded the Department of Religion.[26] He was also among the original editorial advisors of the scholarly journal Dionysius.[citation needed] In 1978 he returned to Harvard.[26] In 1979 he received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University.[27] After his retirement from Harvard in 1984,[26] he was appointed a senior research associate in the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College, University of Toronto, in 1985.[28]

Views on Religion[edit]

Critique of "Religion" as a Concept[edit]

In The Meaning and End of Religion (1962), Smith critiqued the concept of "religion" as a systematic, identifiable entity. He argued that the term "religion" is a uniquely Western construct and not a universally valid category. Smith proposed replacing the static concept of religion with a dynamic dialectic between "cumulative tradition" (all historically observable rituals, art, music, theologies, etc.) and "personal faith".[29]

Analysis of Major Religions[edit]

Smith demonstrated that founders and followers of major religions did not see themselves as part of a defined system called religion, with Islam being a notable exception. In his chapter "The Special Case of Islam", Smith noted that the term Islam appears in the Qur'an, making it the only religion named by its own tradition. He also highlighted that the Arabic language does not have a word for religion equivalent to the European concept, detailing how din, usually translated as such, differs significantly.

Historical Evolution of the Term[edit]

Smith pointed out that terms for major world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism did not exist until the 19th century. He suggested that practitioners historically did not view their practices as "religion" until cultural self-regard prompted them to see their practices as different from others. For Smith, the modern concept of religion emerged from identity politics and apologetics.

Etymological Study[edit]

Through an etymological study, Smith argued that "religion" originally denoted personal piety but evolved to mean a system of observances or beliefs, a shift institutionalized through reification. He traced this transformation from Lucretius and Cicero through Lactantius and Augustine, with the term "faith" predominating in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance revived "religio," which retained its personal practice emphasis. During the 17th-century Catholic-Protestant debates, religion began to refer to abstract systems of beliefs, a concept further reified during the Enlightenment, exemplified by G.W.F. Hegel's definition of religion as a self-subsisting transcendent idea.

Four Distinct Senses of "Religion"[edit]

Smith concluded that "religion" now has four distinct senses: personal piety, an overt system of beliefs, practices, and values as an ideal religion, an empirical phenomenon related to a particular community's historical and sociological manifestation, and a generic summation or universal category of religion in general.[30]

The Meaning and End of Religion remains Smith's most influential work. The anthropologist of religion and postcolonial scholar Talal Asad has called it a modern classic and a masterpiece.[31]

Death and Legacy[edit]

Smith died on 7 February 2000 in Toronto.[17] His papers are preserved in Special Collections and Archives at the University Library at California State University, Northridge.[32]

See also[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis (1943, 1946, 1963), Victor Gollancz, London, ISBN 0-8364-1338-5
  • The Muslim League, 1942–1945 (1945) Minerva Book Shop, 57 p.
  • Pakistan as an Islamic State: Preliminary Draft (1954), Shaikh Muhammad Ashraf, 114 p.
  • Islam in Modern History: The tension between Faith and History in the Islamic World (1957), Princeton University Press 1977 paperback: ISBN 0-691-01991-6
  • The Meaning and End of Religion: A New Approach to the Religious Traditions of Mankind (Macmillan, 1962), Fortress Press 1991 paperback: ISBN 0-8006-2475-0
  • The Faith of Other Men (1963), Dutton, ISBN 0-453-00004-5. from seven CBC Radio talks
  • Questions of Religious Truth (1967), Scribner
  • Religious Diversity: Essays (1976), HarperCollins paperback: ISBN 0-06-067464-4
  • Belief and History (1977), University of Virginia Press 1986 paperback: ISBN 0-8139-1086-2
  • On Understanding Islam: Selected Studies editor, (1981), The Hague: Mouton Publishers: ISBN 90-279-3448-7, Walter De Gruyter Inc. hardcover: ISBN 90-279-3448-7, paperback: ISBN 3-11-010020-7, 2000 reprint: ISBN 3-11-013498-5
  • Scripture: Issues as Seen by a Comparative Religionist (1985) Claremont Graduate School, 22 p., no ISBN
  • Towards a World Theology: Faith and the Comparative History of Religion (1989) Macmillan paperback: ISBN 0-333-52272-9, Orbis Books 1990 paperback: ISBN 0-88344-646-4
  • What Is Scripture? A Comparative Approach, Fortress Press 1993: ISBN 0-8006-2608-7
  • Patterns of Faith Around the World, Oneworld Publications 1998: ISBN 1-85168-164-7
  • Faith and Belief, Princeton University Press 1979: ISBN 0-691-02040-X, Oneworld Publications 1998: ISBN 1-85168-165-5
  • Believing, Oneworld Publications 1998: ISBN 1-85168-166-3
  • Wilfred Cantwell Smith Reader (2001), Kenneth Cracknell editor, Oneworld Publications, ISBN 1-85168-249-X
  • "Wilfred Cantwell Smith. A Chronological Bibliography", compiled by Russell T. McCutcheon, in Michel Despland, Gerard Vallée (eds.), Religion in History. The Word, the Idea, the Reality, Waterloo, Ontario, Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1992, pp. 243–252.

References[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Asad 2001, p. 205.
  2. ^ a b c Ferahian 1997, p. 27.
  3. ^ a b c d Ferahian 1997, p. 28.
  4. ^ Ferahian 1997, p. 33.
  5. ^ Ferahian 1997, p. 28; Stevens 1985, p. 10.
  6. ^ a b Cameron 1997, p. 10.
  7. ^ Cameron 1997, pp. 10, 35.
  8. ^ Cameron 1997, pp. 35, 38.
  9. ^ Cameron 1997, pp. 32, 38.
  10. ^ Cameron 1997, p. 14.
  11. ^ Cameron 1997, pp. 23, 38.
  12. ^ Cameron 1997, pp. 28, 38.
  13. ^ Eck 2017, pp. 22–23.
  14. ^ Bhargava, Rajeev (29 November 2016). "How the Secular Diversity of India Informed the Philosophy of Charles Taylor". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  15. ^ "Deaths". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 9 February 2000. p. A18.
  16. ^ Fallers 1967, p. 120.
  17. ^ a b Shook 2016, p. 905.
  18. ^ Putnam, Hilary; Eck, Diana; Carman, John; Tu Wei-Ming; Graham, William (29 November 2001). "Wilfred Cantwell Smith: In Memoriam". Harvard University Gazette. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University. Archived from the original on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  19. ^ Smith 1991.
  20. ^ Ferahian 1997, p. 27; Kessler 2012, p. 148.
  21. ^ Graham 2017, p. 86.
  22. ^ Cameron 1997, p. 21.
  23. ^ Cameron 1997, p. 10; Ferahian 1997, p. 27; Stevens 1985, p. 10.
  24. ^ Aitken & Sharma 2017, p. 1.
  25. ^ Balfour, Clair (31 July 1986). "Islamic scholar slain in U.S. was figure in Montreal". The Gazette. Montreal.
  26. ^ a b c d Petersen 2014, p. 94.
  27. ^ Davis, Charles (1979). "Honorary Degree Citation – Wilfred Cantwell Smith". Montreal: Concordia University. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  28. ^ Aitken & Sharma 2017, p. 2.
  29. ^ Smith 1991, p. 194.
  30. ^ Smith 1991, pp. 48–49.
  31. ^ Asad 2001, pp. 205–206.
  32. ^ "Guide to the Wilfred Cantwell Smith Papers" (PDF). Online Archive of California. 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2022.

Further reading[edit]

Of interest[edit]

  • Bae, Kuk-Won (2003). Homo Fidei: A Critical Understanding of Faith in the Writings of Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Its Implications for the Study of Religion. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-5112-1.
  • Gilkey, Langdon (1981). "A Theological Voyage with Wilfred Cantwell Smith". Religious Studies Review. 7 (4): 298–306. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0922.1981.tb00185.x. ISSN 1748-0922.
  • Hughes, Edward J. (1986). Wilfred Cantwell Smith: A Theology for the World. London: SCM Press. ISBN 978-0-334-02333-3.
  • Mæland, Bård (2003). Rewarding Encounters: Islam and the Comparative Theologies of Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred Cantwell Smith. London: Melisende. ISBN 978-1-901764-24-6.

External links[edit]

Professional and academic associations
Preceded by President of the
American Academy of Religion
1983 		Succeeded by
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