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Man. This book is fantastic. Wonder and gratitude ooze out of every page of this Religion scholar (and practitioner)'s wonderfully written reflection of his 90+ years spent taking it all in.
Huston Smith has led a remarkable life. He has conversed with the Dalai Lama, lived as a monk in Japan, done LSD with Tim Leary and introduced America to Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions considered exotic in the fifties. But I had hoped that his autobiography would bring these stories to life, instead they were a laundry list of accomplishment. He writes his autobiography from his nursing home at the age of ninety, and as a result the book reads more the musings of a man at the end of his
Interesting life. Horrible theology.
I've heard that some books find you, and I can count on my fingers the ones that have truly found me when I was ready. I was not ready for this book to be one of them but it was. I'm not sure how much more to review a book whose words blend in with the soul of the reader, at least this reader. I am humbled at his life and Huston is high on my list of people I'd share a beer with.
Many years ago when visiting a nursing home, I met man who at the age of 101 was writing his first book. I met him again two years later and he was working on his second book. Like this nursing home patient, Huston Smith wrote this book shortly before turning ninety while living in an assisted living facility. He wrote this autobiograpy after a lifetime of studying, participating in and writing about the religions of the world. This is his fifteen book. If you are looking for a memoir of his spi...
I imagine this autobiography must have been one of Huston Smith's most challenging books to write--for he was both an extraordinarily gifted and remarkably accomplished man and a humble man. A egotistical person, with only a small fraction of Smith's life experiences, would have produced a much larger volume. So when he devotes a sentence to an event that seems to deserve a chapter, I take his brevity to be reflection of his modesty, or better yet, his absence of conceit. All of that is to say t...
A Very Interesting LifeHouston Smith's book on his life was a delight to read, not only because a biography allows the reader to peek into a person's intimate life, but because it describes in detail the role of religion in his daily business. Furthermore, the book is written with humour and abounds in deep reflections about existence.
Huston Smith lived a pretty incredible life, and I enjoyed reading this autobiography.
This book was Terribly Wonderful!I say terribly wonderful because my heart breaks as he related his wife's upbringing and the deaths of one daughter and a grand-daughter. Yet it's also terrible because it is forcing me to re-examine what Christianity really means for the 1 Millioneth time in my life.Thst is both terrible and wonderful. The reason unlike many of Smith's books that I would not give it 5 stars is that I wanted more discussion of the people that he met.I also would have liked to hea...
I seldom read biographies, and still less often, autobiographies, making exceptions only for those subjects who truly fascinate me or who I believe have much to teach. Huston Smith falls squarely into both categories.Many years ago, my husband and I took a class on World Religions being given at the local high school by a professor from the nearest state university. The text was Smith's The Religions of Man, since revised, enlarged, and retitled The World's Religions. So I was familiar with Smit...
An autobiography of a man who made the world's religions his lifelong study, not in any impersonal way, but with a child's wholehearted delight. Before I had finished the book, I already knew I wanted a copy of my own.
I keep wondering how much more detailed this memoir would have been if Smith had started writing it several years ago -- or if, perhaps, he were less modest. He is a fascinating, charming, very humanistic person who has lived an incredible life, one which would have easily filled out a memoir four or five times the length of this and remained interesting. But these anecdotes merely provide a graceful outline of his life; they don't dig into the details which would have taken it from "interesting...
Some lovely thoughts, some odd thoughts - but overall, very open minded man.Quite enjoyed first half, then got bogged down a bit. But overall, would recommend this for lovers of memoir or religion.
Easily the most spiritually charged and life changing book I have ever read. After reading H. smith’s works I realized I was not alone in my thinking and exploration of world religions.
Huston Smith wrote The World's Religions which sold 2 1/2 million copies & was the subject of a 5 part special on PBS wherein Bill Moyers interviewed him about the world's religions. He is now 90 and this is his new autobiography. For someone whose spent his life pondering the depths of Islam, Hinduism, and other religions, this book is surprisingly conversational in tone. It feels very much like you're just sitting down listening to someone tell stories about their life. I had never heard of hi...
A very personal, end of life summing up of the events and principles that most influenced his work, marriage and community. A bit slow at times, but the end chapters were so powerful that it brought tears to my eyes. I provide a spoiler here, but four stars really are for those last chapters. I did enjoy the meandering of the autobiographical, learned a lot from precises of the important parts of his scholarship. Probably not for everyone, but a good read for Huston Smith fans or folks intereste...
It was an interesting read. He catalogs his faith journey from traditional Christianity to a more unitarian faith perspective. He claims he did a deep exploration of other major religions without leaving "Christianity" and even offers a "curse" on traditional/fundamental Christians. Aside from that one harsh line, I think many Christians may be unknowingly persuaded toward a more flimsy faith because his decades in academia and compassionate engagement of other religions suggest he is a very qua...
May we all reach 90 with as much curiosity, joy, and presence as Huston Smith!
I ran across this autobiography and was intrigued. Huston Smith had a most unusual life, born in the 1920's in China, the son of Christian missionaries, sent to America to live with grandparents and study at a conservative Christian college, transferring to the University of Chicago, and later to Berkeley and learning all that rational humanism had to teach from professors like Henry Weiman, a self described socialist and naturalistic theist (whose daughter he married) and meditating at a desert...
Huston Smith has always been a fascinating figure to me. On the one hand I have always admired his ability to see the good in every religion, and I appreciate the fact that he has actively practiced many of the religions he writes about. But I’ve also been frustrated by Smith’s tendency to turn a blind eye toward the troubling aspects of religion. I also find him to be extremely slippery when elucidating his own beliefs, as he is committed to maintaining that all religions are true in their own