Arguments on W.C. Smith

Wilfred Cantell smith a much(prenominal) respected Canadian religion academic died in 2000 but as other great thinkers like him his works continue to live by and by his passing.Smith has dealt extensively with the effect of confidence and how we as people interpret or understand it on a daily basis. Faith according to Smith is the essence of humanity and it is for this reason that much of his work has delved for the most part on this depend.Before we go any further it is important to appreciate that Smith is a world course of study scholar who spent sometime teaching a Christian mission college in the Indian subcontinent onwards and after it was divided to create Pakistan.While there he developed an appreciation for the Muslim faith and on his return to Canada he helped set up the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. He later on moved to Harvard where he became the Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions.Never whiz to be held down by convention s, his biggest aim was to move away from the Christian theology he had long dealt with, as a schoolchild and teacher, to a much broader way in which a better understanding of religion can be attained. Smith once described his work as the search for conceptual clarification of mans relation to transcendence. (Jagger, 2004).Religion simply has two terms that go hand in hand, belief and faith, as far as more people are concerned. Smith felt that faith is not only feature that defines religious life (Smith, 1998) but more what fully defines the human life.Faith according to Smith is different from belief. Not the matter that in Christianity the two terms represent the same quality and have therefore been used interchangeably as was used in the New Testament to in the translation of the word pistis (Smith, 1997).Smiths beef, if you will, with belief today is that belief seemed to have acquired different meanings in English over time and it has brought near much confusion.In Believin g An Historical Perspective, Smith asserts that faith is concerned with persons and on the other hand belief refers to propositions (Smith,1997). This take to his observation that belief has come to simply mean a lack of certainty, i.e. believing in something that may not have factual truths.Belief is an opinion or conviction (Random House Dictionary, 1996). This definition is one that made Smith discount belief as something that can influence religion. Smith has dealt further with this matter in another one of his works, Faith and Belief.He felt that the changes that have occurred the terms faith and belief are his reasons for the position he holds that religion is not about belief. About religion itself, Smith argues that the terms faith and cumulative tradition are more apt terms for it.Smith points out that faith, though as well very diverse, does not attract manifold interpretations as the term belief does. He also sees faith as cutting across all the religions of the world and it is what compels people to act in concurrence to what their religion teaches.This point is what has won me over to Smiths idea that religion is not about belief. I am in total agreement with Smiths view of things here.In fact many people have followed Smiths point of thinking and today the term transcendence is gaining shew around the religious circles. And whenever the term transcendence is invoked what comes to mind is Buddhism, so its clear why Smiths observation takes all the religions under its his wing, so to speak.