The Soul of Christianity - Huston Smith

Smith, Huston. The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005. (176 pages)

One of my favorite reads with too many highlights and underlines to reference here.

Suggesting that we are now living in the second of two great human revolutions, Smith follows the “best defense is a good offense” strategy stating,

“[This book] champions Christianity by telling the Christian story in a way that is more persuasive than secularism’s attacks on it,” (p.xxv).

Smith is well known for his work and teaching on The World’s Religions (1991). This work is placed in a symbolic three parts, 1) The Christian Worldview, 2) The Christian Story, and 3) The Three Main Branches of Christianity Today.

In Part 1, he posits 15 principles of which he sums at the end of the section in this paragraph:

The world is objectively there and intelligible. It is infinite and includes the finite with its value-laden degrees, hierarchically ordered. As virtues ascend in the hierarchy, they meld into one another until their differences disappear in the Simple One. Evil features in finitude but not in the Absolute, and because the Absolute is all-powerful, in the end absolute perfection reigns. Human begins intersect the degrees of reality, but in them they appear inverted, as if seen on the surface of a glassy lake. We cannot comprehend the fullness of Reality on our own, but its outlines are revealed to us. The key to unlocking the truths of Revelation is symbolism. Knowing is both rational and intuitive, both concrete and abstract. After we have done our best to understand the world, it remains mysterious, but through the shrouds of mystery, we can dimly discern that it is perfect. (p.33)

In Part 2, he quickly covers the main points of the Christian story, starting, of course, with Jesus, His life, death, burial, and resurrection, Saul of Tarsus, a few doctrines, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).

In part 3, he does a synopsis of the three main branches of Christianity: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestantism.

I found much of this book having quite a bit in common with the tensions that contemporarily lie in the discussion of the Emerging Church (a discussion that is primarily Protestant). His way of communicating esoteric concepts for a more popular audience is refreshing, but in addition, he shares a “convincing argument for a vital alternative that is a deeper more authentic faith, a faith that guided the Church for its first thousand years,” (back cover, emphasis mine).

An ‘easy’ read, but not a ‘quick’ one; a concise work with sentences and ideas that require mental and spiritual marinating.

~ by VIA on May 6, 2008.