THE WAY THINGS ARE

THE WAY THINGS ARE Conversations on Religion, Science and Spirituality Huston Smith (Ed. Phil Cousineau) Huston Smith has been trying to find a balance between the secular and the sacred dimensions of learning. What he has gleaned from a lifetime of studying the religions of the world is “the winnowed wisdom of the human race.” More importantly, he has gained access to “another world to live in,” which he has variously described as the Eternal, the Timeless, the Ultimate, and the place where he encounters God. Huston Smith’s books are all still in print, his essays have been anthologized, and his documentary films are available on video, but the numerous interviews conducted with him over the years have not been collected until now. The volume provides a profound new source of insight into Smith’s views on the world’s religious heritage and its relevance for our times and reveals a treasure trove of details about his long journey to discover the universal truths at the heart of humanity’s search for the ultimate nature of things. While banqueting us with technological gains, science is starving our souls by eclipsing the Transcendent. Defiant in the face of such scientistic nihilism, Smith has communicated to his students and readers that this is not the way things are— life is not pointless, meaningless, and purposeless. Instead, he admits to being driven to demonstrate the way things are, in fact— rich with purpose, value, and transcendental meaning.