The life of Huston Smith reads like an adventure novel. One of the foremost religious scholars in the world today, Smith has lived in a missionary household in China, monasteries in Japan, and a sweat lodge in North America. Smith has engaged many of the contemporary wisdom giants-including Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama-and believes in the eternal mystery of life, cautioning against our "tendency to reduce the Divine to where it is easily manageable by our finite mind."
Due to his varied background studying the world's diverse religions, Smith is a natural to discuss the role of religion today; the value religion continues to provide for those who choose to listen; the difference between religion and spirituality; the commonalities of various religions; and the qualities of Native American religious beliefs.
Westerners look to science to explain the way things are, yet science often overlooks something essential to life: the human spirit. Professor Smith discusses the role of spirit in modern life, focusing on how to understand the difference between the secular and the sacred in a scientifically biased world. He looks at why spirituality has taken a back seat to science for 400 years and how idolizing science has diminished the human spirit.
Although he describes the pitfalls of the "Modern Western mind set," Smith points to a new balance between the worlds of science and mysticism and shows why physics and philosophy go hand in hand. He also updates us on his own excitement and puzzlements about new developments in science and spirituality.
Join Huston Smith on a fascinating journey for the truth!
Michael Toms is the founding President of New Dimensions Foundation, co-founder of New Dimensions Radio and Chief Executive Officer of the New Dimensions Broadcasting Network. Educated in broadcasting at the University of Miami, he went on to post-graduate work in psychology and the philosophy of religion. He serves as the executive producer and principal host of the award-winning and widely acclaimed "New Dimensions" nationally and internationally syndicated radio series and has spent more than twenty-five years exploring creative ideas with many of the most interesting people of our time and is acknowledged as one of the premier interviewers in media today. His book, An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms is a national bestseller. He is the recipient of two honorary doctorates for his vanguard work in media and is an adjunct Professor at Union Graduate School and Maryklhurst Graduate School of Business. A writer, seminar leader, communications, marketing and fundraising consultant, he has worked with literally hundreds of organizations. He also served for seven years as Senior Acquisitions Editor for Harper Collins San Francisco and is Board Chairman Emeritus of the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is co-author with his partner, Justine Willis Toms, of True Work: The Sacred Dimension of Earning a Living (Bell Tower Feb 1998).
