Wilfred Cantwell Smith

Smith was born on 21 July 1916 in Toronto, Ontario, to parents Victor Arnold Smith and Sarah Cory Cantwell.{{sfnm |1a1=Ferahian |1y=1997 |1p=27 |2a1=Kessler |2y=2012 |2p=148}} He was the younger brother of Arnold Smith{{sfn|Graham|2017|p=86}} and the father of Brian Cantwell Smith.{{sfn|Ferahian|1997|p=27}} He primarily received his secondary education at Upper Canada College.{{sfn|Cameron|1997|p=10}}

Smith studied at University College, Toronto,{{sfn|Cameron|1997|p=21}} receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in oriental languages circa 1938.{{sfnm |1a1=Cameron |1y=1997 |1p=10 |2a1=Ferahian |2y=1997 |2p=27 |3a1=Stevens |3y=1985 |3p=10}} After his thesis was rejected by the University of Cambridge,{{sfn|Aitken|Sharma|2017|p=1}} supposedly for its Marxist critique of the British Raj, he and his wife Muriel Mackenzie Struthers spent seven years in pre-independence India (1940–1946), during which he taught Indian and Islamic history at Forman Christian College in Lahore.

In 1948, he earned a PhD in Oriental Languages from Princeton University, after which he joined the faculty at McGill University. In 1952, he founded the university's Institute of Islamic Studies.{{sfn|Ferahian|1997|p=28}} During his tenure at McGill, he invited Ismail al-Faruqi to join the Institute, where al-Faruqi taught from 1958 to 1961.{{cite news |last=Balfour |first=Clair |title=Islamic scholar slain in U.S. was figure in Montreal |work=The Gazette |location=Montreal |date=July 31, 1986 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19860731&id=sBUyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DaYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3896,4415821}}

From 1964 to 1973, he was a professor at Harvard Divinity School.{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=94}} He later moved to Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he established the Department of Religion.{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=94}} He was also one of the original editorial advisors for the journal Dionysius.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} In 1978, he returned to Harvard.{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=94}}

The following year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Concordia University.{{cite web |last=Davis |first=Charles |year=1979 |title=Honorary Degree Citation – Wilfred Cantwell Smith |url=http://archives.concordia.ca/smith-w |location=Montreal |publisher=Concordia University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002092308/http://archives.concordia.ca/smith-w |archive-date=2 October 2015 |access-date=11 April 2016}}

After retiring from Harvard in 1984,{{sfn|Petersen|2014|p=94}} he was appointed senior research associate in the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College, University of Toronto, in 1985.{{sfn|Aitken|Sharma|2017|p=2}}

In The Meaning and End of Religion (1962), Smith critiqued the concept of "religion" as a systematic, identifiable entity. He argued that the term "religion" is a uniquely Western construct and not a universally valid category. Smith proposed replacing the static concept of religion with a dynamic dialectic between "cumulative tradition" (all historically observable rituals, art, music, theologies, etc.) and "personal faith".{{sfn|Smith|1991|p=194}}

Smith demonstrated that founders and followers of major religions did not see themselves as part of a defined system called religion, with Islam being a notable exception. In his chapter "The Special Case of Islam", Smith noted that the term Islam appears in the Qur'an, making it the only religion named by its own tradition. He also highlighted that the Arabic language does not have a word for religion equivalent to the European concept, detailing how din, usually translated as such, differs significantly.

Smith pointed out that terms for major world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism did not exist until the 19th century. He suggested that practitioners historically did not view their practices as "religion" until cultural self-regard prompted them to see their practices as different from others. For Smith, the modern concept of religion emerged from identity politics and apologetics.

Through an etymological study, Smith argued that "religion" originally denoted personal piety but evolved to mean a system of observances or beliefs, a shift institutionalized through reification. He traced this transformation from Lucretius and Cicero through Lactantius and Augustine, with the term "faith" predominating in the Middle Ages. The Renaissance revived "religio," which retained its personal practice emphasis. During the 17th-century Catholic-Protestant debates, religion began to refer to abstract systems of beliefs, a concept further reified during the Enlightenment, exemplified by G.W.F. Hegel's definition of religion as a self-subsisting transcendent idea.

Smith concluded that "religion" now has four distinct senses: personal piety, an overt system of beliefs, practices, and values as an ideal religion, an empirical phenomenon related to a particular community's historical and sociological manifestation, and a generic summation or universal category of religion in general.{{sfn|Smith|1991|pp=48–49}}

The Meaning and End of Religion remains Smith's most influential work. The anthropologist of religion and postcolonial scholar Talal Asad has called it a modern classic and a masterpiece.{{sfn|Asad|2001|pp=205–206}}

Smith died on 7 February 2000 in Toronto.{{sfn|Shook|2016|p=905}} His papers are preserved in Special Collections and Archives at the University Library at California State University, Northridge.{{cite web |url=http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/cnos/spcoll/csun_sc_wcs_oac.pdf |title=Guide to the Wilfred Cantwell Smith Papers |author= |date=2020 |publisher=Online Archive of California |access-date=November 14, 2022}}

• Religious pluralism
• Universalism

• {{cite book |title=Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis |year=1945 |publisher=Victor Gollancz |location=London}}
• {{cite book |title=The Muslim League, 1942–1945 |year=1945 |publisher=Minerva Book Shop |pages=57}}
• {{cite book |title=Pakistan as an Islamic State: Preliminary Draft |year=1954 |publisher=Shaikh Muhammad Ashraf |pages=114}}
• {{cite book |title=Islam in Modern History: The Tension Between Faith and History in the Islamic World |year=1957 |publisher=Princeton University Press |edition=1977 paperback}}
• {{cite book |title=The Meaning and End of Religion: A New Approach to the Religious Traditions of Mankind |year=1962 |publisher=Macmillan |edition=1991 paperback}}
• {{cite book |title=The Faith of Other Men |year=1963 |publisher=Dutton}}
• {{cite book |title=Questions of Religious Truth |year=1967 |publisher=Scribner}}
• {{cite book |title=Religious Diversity: Essays |year=1976 |publisher=HarperCollins |edition=paperback |isbn=0-06-067464-4}}
• {{cite book |title=Belief and History |year=1977 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |edition=1986 paperback |isbn=0-8139-1086-2}}
• {{cite book |title=On Understanding Islam: Selected Studies |year=1981 |publisher=Mouton Publishers |location=The Hague |isbn=90-279-3448-7}}
• {{cite book |title=Scripture: Issues as Seen by a Comparative Religionist |year=1985 |publisher=Claremont Graduate School |pages=22}}
• {{cite book |title=Towards a World Theology: Faith and the Comparative History of Religion |year=1989 |publisher=Macmillan |edition=1990 paperback |isbn=0-333-52272-9}}
• {{cite book |title=What Is Scripture? A Comparative Approach |year=1993 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=0-8006-2608-7}}
• {{cite book |title=Patterns of Faith Around the World |year=1998 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=1-85168-164-7}}
• {{cite book |title=Faith and Belief |year=1979 |publisher=Princeton University Press |edition=1998 Oneworld Publications |isbn=1-85168-165-5}}
• {{cite book |title=Believing |year=1998 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=1-85168-166-3}}
• {{cite book |title=Wilfred Cantwell Smith Reader |year=2001 |editor=Kenneth Cracknell |publisher=Oneworld Publications |isbn=1-85168-249-X}}
• {{cite book |title=Wilfred Cantwell Smith. A Chronological Bibliography |year=1992 |editor=Michel Despland and Gerard Vallée |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |pages=243–252 |chapter=Religion in History: The Word, the Idea, the Reality}}

{{reflist|22em}}

{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book

|last1=Aitken

|first1=Ellen Bradshaw

|last2=Sharma

|first2=Arvind

|author2-link=Arvind Sharma

|year=2017

|chapter=Introduction

|editor1-last=Aitken

|editor1-first=Ellen Bradshaw

|editor2-last=Sharma

|editor2-first=Arvind

|editor2-link=Arvind Sharma

|title=The Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|location=Albany, New York

|publisher=State University of New York Press

|pages=1–19

|isbn=978-1-4384-6469-5

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Asad

|first=Talal

|author-link=Talal Asad

|year=2001

|title=Reading a Modern Classic: W. C. Smith's The Meaning and End of Religion

|journal=History of Religions

|volume=40

|issue=3

|pages=205–222

|doi=10.1086/463633

|issn=1545-6935

|jstor=3176697

|s2cid=162340926

}}

• {{cite thesis

|last=Cameron

|first=Roberta Llewellyn

|year=1997

|title=The Making of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's "World Theology"

|url=https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq25920.pdf

|degree=PhD

|location=Montreal

|publisher=Concordia University

|access-date=26 December 2018

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Eck

|first=Diana L.

|author-link=Diana L. Eck

|year=2017

|chapter=Religious Studies – The Academic and Moral Challenge: Personal Reflections on the Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|editor1-last=Aitken

|editor1-first=Ellen Bradshaw

|editor2-last=Sharma

|editor2-first=Arvind

|editor2-link=Arvind Sharma

|title=The Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|location=Albany, New York

|publisher=State University of New York Press

|pages=21–35

|isbn=978-1-4384-6469-5

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Fallers

|first=L. A.

|year=1967

|title=Review of The Meaning and End of Religion: A New Approach to the Religious Traditions of Mankind by Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|journal=American Anthropologist

|series=2

|volume=69

|number=1

|pages=120–121

|doi=10.1525/aa.1967.69.1.02a00590

|doi-access=

|issn=1548-1433

|jstor=670539

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Ferahian

|first=Salwa

|year=1997

|title=W. C. Smith Remembered

|url=http://www.lib.umich.edu/area/Near.East/sferah.htm

|journal=MELA Notes

|issue=64

|pages=27–36

|issn=0364-2410

|jstor=29785650

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218130850/http://www.lib.umich.edu/area/Near.East/sferah.htm

|archive-date=18 February 2007

|access-date=25 December 2018

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Graham

|first=William A.

|author-link=William A. Graham (dean)

|year=2017

|chapter=Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Orientalism

|editor1-last=Aitken

|editor1-first=Ellen Bradshaw

|editor2-last=Sharma

|editor2-first=Arvind

|editor2-link=Arvind Sharma

|title=The Legacy of Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|location=Albany, New York

|publisher=State University of New York Press

|pages=85–97

|isbn=978-1-4384-6469-5

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Kessler

|first=Gary E.

|year=2012

|title=Fifty Key Thinkers on Religion

|location=Abingdon, England

|publisher=Routledge

|isbn=978-0-203-80747-7

}}

• {{cite book

|year=2014

|editor-last=Petersen

|editor-first=Rodney L.

|editor-link=Rodney L. Petersen

|title=Divinings: Religion at Harvard

|volume=1

|location=Göttingen, Germany

|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

|isbn=978-3-647-55056-5

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Rahbar

|first=Daud

|author-link=Daud Rahbar

|year=1964

|title=Review of The Meaning and End of Religion by Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|journal=Journal of Bible and Religion

|volume=32

|number=3

|pages=275–277

|doi=10.1093/jaarel/XXXII.3.275

|issn=0885-2758

|jstor=1460513

}}

• {{cite encyclopedia

|year=2016

|title=Smith, Wilfred Cantwell

|editor-last=Shook

|editor-first=John R.

|encyclopedia=The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America: From 1600 to the Present

|location=London

|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic

|pages=905ff

|isbn=978-1-4725-7056-7

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Smith

|first=Wilfred Cantwell

|year=1991

|orig-year=1962

|title=The Meaning and End of Religion

|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota

|publisher=Fortress Press

|isbn=978-0-8006-2475-0

}}

• {{cite thesis

|last=Stevens

|first=Philip Terence

|year=1985

|title=Wilfred Cantweil Smith's Concept of Faith: A Critical Study of His Approach to Islam and Christianity

|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6808/

|degree=MA

|location=Durham, England

|publisher=Durham University

|access-date=26 December 2018

}}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book

|last=Bae

|first=Kuk-Won

|year=2003

|title=Homo Fidei: A Critical Understanding of Faith in the Writings of Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Its Implications for the Study of Religion

|location=New York

|publisher=Peter Lang

|isbn=978-0-8204-5112-1

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Gilkey

|first=Langdon

|author-link=Langdon Brown Gilkey

|year=1981

|title=A Theological Voyage with Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|journal=Religious Studies Review

|volume=7

|issue=4

|pages=298–306

|doi=10.1111/j.1748-0922.1981.tb00185.x

|issn=1748-0922

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Hughes

|first=Edward J.

|year=1986

|title=Wilfred Cantwell Smith: A Theology for the World

|location=London

|publisher=SCM Press

|isbn=978-0-334-02333-3

}}

• {{cite book

|last=Mæland

|first=Bård

|year=2003

|title=Rewarding Encounters: Islam and the Comparative Theologies of Kenneth Cragg and Wilfred Cantwell Smith

|location=London

|publisher=Melisende

|isbn=978-1-901764-24-6

}}

{{refend}}

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Wilfred Cantwell Smith}}
• [http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2000/04/memorial-service-for-wilfred-cantwell-smith-set/ Memorial from Harvard University]
• [http://www.ageofsignificance.org/people/wcsmith/index.html Obituary for W.C. Smith from Age of Significance]

{{s-start}}

{{s-npo|pro}}

{{s-bef|before=Gordon D. Kaufman}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of the
American Academy of Religion|years=1983}}

{{s-aft|after=Ray Hart}}

{{s-end}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Religion}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Wilfred Cantwell}}

Category:1916 births

Category:2000 deaths

Category:Academic staff of McGill University

Category:Canadian religion academics

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Academics from Toronto

Category:Presidents of the American Academy of Religion

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:Religious studies scholars

Category:University of Toronto alumni

Category:Upper Canada College alumni

Category:Officers of the Order of Canada