![]() Smart became Regius Professor of Astronomy (retiring in 1959). M Smart, who died in 1975, also served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society (1950).īoth parents were Scottish. Ninian Smart was born in Cambridge, England, where his father, William Marshall Smart (1889–1975) was the John Couch Adams Astronomer in the University of Cambridge. He distanced religious studies from traditional theology in that evaluating truth claims and apology have no role but regarded investigation into the "truth and worth" of religion per se as a valid academic enterprise in the public arena of state-funded education. His defence of religious studies as a secular discipline helped the formation of departments in many public universities, especially in the United States. His book The World's Religions (1989) also reached a considerable popular readership. Smart became widely known outside the academy, at least in Britain, when he was editorial consultant for the major BBC television series, The Long Search (1977). Smart held both titles at the time of his death. In 2000, he was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, while simultaneously retaining his status as president of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace. ![]() In 1996, he was named the Academic Senate's research professor, the highest professorial rank at UC Santa Barbara. Smart presented the Gifford Lectures in 1979–80. Rowny Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions at University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1967 he established the first department of religious studies in the United Kingdom at the new University of Lancaster where he was also Pro-Vice-Chancellor, having already chaired one of the largest and most prestigious departments of theology in Britain at the University of Birmingham. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies. Roderick Ninian Smart ( – 29 January 2001) was a Scottish writer and university educator. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |