Three Views of Christianity

Abstract

tion, yet trained to different disciplinary tasks. Smith began as a specialist on Islam and is moving towards theology. Smart began as a philosopher of religion and has developed expertise on traditions of Indian subcontinent. Clebsch is an acknowledged historian of Christianity whose milieu is that of an American secular culture awakened to plurality of traditions. As Clebsch's title indicates, his topic is more restricted. But in his preface he explicitly mentions current awareness of the non-western of Asians, Africans, pre-Columbian Americans and Islanders. The humanities, he declares, echoing Schopenhauer, are undergoing an ecumenic Renaissance, which admits the sacrality of pagan classics. The worldwide outlook of contemporary humanists, he observes, has created both a new esteem for non-western forms, and a reappraisal of western forms of humanity (1979:vii). Such is global outlook that he affirms at outset of his work on Christianity. The other two authors take this perspective for granted. Our interest in reviewing these texts is not in what each author says about what he is doing, but in what he actually does, when discussing Christianity in light of history of religions. Our concern is not to follow each work through to all its conclusions, but to reflect on its ramifications for our understanding of Christianity. Each is important because all three authors are leaders in English-speaking world in academic study of religion.