at Lancaster, created in 1967 as the first of its kind in Britain. A highly prolific
author, Smart represents a type of scholarship that has no counterpart on the
continent. He was a combination of philosopher, public intellectual, educator,
popularizer, media consultant, global and comparative theologian, and
advocate of the dialogue of religions rather than a scholar of religion in the
continental sense. This combination may mirror Smart’s own opposition to
‘the ghettoization of religious studies’ (King 2005: 8444) and his skepticism
of ‘ “purists” who, he thought, failed to see the full nature of the object of
their studies’ (Wiebe 2001: 381). His version of the study of religions was
probably more meta-confessional than non-confessional, un-dogmatic but not
a-religious. Still, he powerfully proclaimed the principle of methodological
agnosticism for the scientific study of religion (Smart 1973). Highly influential
in the UK and the US, he has made no real impact on the study of religion on
the continent.
Religious education
Among his many concerns, Smart campaigned in the 1960s and early 1970s,
largely successfully, for a non-dogmatic type of religious education, aimed at
the ‘nature of religion’ and committed to religious plurality as well as to the
neutrality of the state. ‘Apart from its influence in schools, [Smart’s vision]
provided the intellectual foundation for the establishment of departments of
religious studies rather than theology in British universities’ (Barnes 2001:
317–318; cf. 2000).
Indeed, in Europe generally the non-confessional study of religions flourishes
institutionally in countries where religious education is a subject taught in
various forms and formats at public schools and where the subject directly
contributes to the training of teachers. This is one of the main reasons why
the non-confessional study of religion blossomed in the Scandinavian countries
and why its institutional penetration remains limited in countries where religion
is not taught in public schools at all, such as France, or where the teachers are
trained in confessional theology, as in Germany, Italy, and Spain. In France,
a debate started in the 1990s about whether religious education should be
introduced at public schools (Meslin 2002: 49–53; Boespflug et al.[eds] 1996).
In some federal states in Germany attempts to introduce an alternative, non-
confessional religious education have involved scholars of religion. Apart from
Britain, however, religious education and questions of didactics and curriculum
are more often than not assigned to practical theology.
The twilight of the phenomenology of religion
Smart was critical of what he considered crypto-theological versions of the
phenomenology of religion, as exemplified by Eliade, but he subscribed to
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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1011
1
2
3111
4 5 6 7 8 9
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
30111
1
2
3
4
35
6
7
8
9
40111
42222
3
411
WESTERN EUROPE
31
