Analyzing Smith´s The Meaning and End of Religion

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In his seminal work, The Meaning and End of Religion, Wilfred Cantwell Smith proposes using two separate concepts for religious studies. Believing that the conventional approach of studying “a religion” or “the religions” is inadequate and misleading, Smith states, “If religion or a religion is anything at all, it is not only in fact but in theory something in which actual living, historical persons are involved” (1838). Therefore, he offers his theories of examining “faith” and “cumulative tradition” as more valuable for any intellectual analysis of the religious experience of mankind. With these two separate, albeit, related concepts, Smith theorizes that religious studies can better grasp both the mundane and the transcendent aspects that make up the whole of man’s religious life (1899-1908). These approaches cover both personal and historical elements – faith being the inner, subjective, personal religious experience of man (includes the transcendent aspect) and cumulative traditions being the outward, objective and observable, historical religious evidence (the mundane aspect). Smith goes on to offer his new theories to the Christian Church as it struggles to maintain relevance in a modern world dominated by science and by “men of new knowledge, new opportunities, new responsibilities” (2406). He suggests that this dual method of analysis could assist the church in formulating a “new theology that will empower Christians to be at once more modern and more devout” (Smith 2396-97).
With the contemporary issue of same-sex marriage, the Christian Church faces a serious confrontation between modern secular thinking and traditional religious beliefs. As growing public opinion favors equal rights for homosexuals and more state...

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...the issue of same-sex marriage.

Works Cited

“Methodist History.” BU School of Theology Library. Boston University. n.d. Wed. 9 Dec, 2013

Otterman, Sharon. “Caught in Methodism’s Split Over Same-Sex Marriage.” The New York
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Wangsness, Lisa. “Among Methodists, schism over gay rites.” The Boston Globe. 24 Nov. 2013
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Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. The Meaning and End of Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1963.
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