Ninian Smart

Ninian Smart

Roderick Ninian Smart (May 6, 1927 – January 9, 2001) was a Scottish writer and university educator. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies. 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. In 1976, he became the first J.F. Rowny Professor in the Comparative Study of Religions at University of California at Santa Barbara, U.S. Smart presented the Gifford Lectures in 1979-80. In 1996, he was named the Academic Senate’s Research Professor, the highest professorial rank at Santa Barbara. 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. Smart held both titles at the time of his death.

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) while his The World’s Religions (1989) also reached a considerable popular readership. His defense of religious studies as a secular discipline helped the formation of departments in many public universities, especially in the United States. 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.