Huston Smith, widely regarded as one of the most eminent authorities on the history of religions, kicks off a series of three lectures sponsored by the Religious Studies Program in Arts & Sciences Oct. 2.
Smith, who is best known for his book "The World's Religions," will speak on "Spirituality in the New Millennium" at 11 a.m. in Graham Chapel. The lecture is free and open to the public. Smith will follow with a student lecture, titled "Huston Smith's Spiritual Journey," at 2:30 p.m. in the Women's Building Lounge.
"The World's Religions" was originally published in 1958 as "The Religions of Man," and remains one of the most widely used college textbooks on religion. It has been translated into 12 languages, selling over 2 million copies. Smith also has authored six other books on psychology, religion and philosophy --most recently one titled "Beyond the Post-modern Mind."
He has taught at Washington University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley. He has produced award-winning documentary films on Hinduism, Sufism and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1996 he was featured on Bill Moyers' five-part Public Broadcasting System special, "The Wisdom of Faith With Huston Smith."
The series will continue with an Oct. 31 lecture by Darielle Mason, the Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mason's talk, to be held at 1:30 p.m. in Room 118 Brown Hall, is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences.
Mason will speak on "A Portion of Heaven," exploring the form and meaning of the great temples of India built between the 8th and 13th centuries. In Hinduism, the temple is the palace of God, inhabited by a heavenly retinue. The sculptures that cover the temple, inside and out, work together with the building to compose a complex whole. Mason will reunite verbally the beautiful fragments seen in museums with the fascinating structures of which they were once an integral part.
The series will conclude Nov. 16 when J. Patout Burns presents the Edward G. Weltin Lecture on Early Christianity. Burns, who taught at the University from 1990 to 1999 as the Thomas and Alberta White Professor of Christian Thought and professor of classics in Arts & Sciences, also chaired the University's Religious Studies Program from 1993 to 1999. Burns currently teaches at Vanderbilt University. He also has taught at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Florida.
Burns' research focuses on Christianity in Roman Africa. Burns serves as co-editor of the Journal of Early Christian Studies.
For more information on the Smith lecture, call 935-5156. For information on the Mason and Burns lectures, call 935-5166.