Religion is one of those topics we tend to stay away from in mixed company. Not forbidden, but certainly not encouraged, because of how it can be so divisive. In this light, Smith's central thesis may seem a bit odd: He has concluded after a lifetime of study and experience that the world's great religions overlap to a very great extent. The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith on DVD is divided into five, one-hour episodes. Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Judiasm, and Islam are addressed, plus there is an hour devoted to understanding Smith's special approach to religious practice. Only Islam and Confucianism have entire episodes dedicated to them. The rationale for this may be that studying Chinese religious practice through the lens of Confucianism intersects with the story of Smith growing up in a Chinese village, son of Methodist missionaries. Islam likely earned its own episode for being such a distinct and populous religious practice, but the viewers of 2011 (the date of this re-release) will have a special interest in understanding Islam after a decade of conflating this religion with Asian and Middle East militarism. Each hour of discussion is interspersed with footage, some of it taken from previous television specials produced by Smith. Images of Smith as a teacher, religious practitioner, and even doing yoga in his '70s and '80s, add a lot to what might seem like a dry presentation of a dry subject.
Thankfully, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith does a fine job exposing Smith's gift to the world, which is that his approach to religion is anything but dry. He balances his research and years of study with a sense of vitality and belief in the hands-on (he says "experiential") quality of religion. Moyers makes it easy to traverse four decades of Smith's work, pulling out quotes from Smith and others over the years, including bits of scripture, sacred art and music, and historical waypoints that he asks Smith to illustrate or explain. Moyers also grasps that each chapter contains a relevant part of Smith's life, whether it is talking about Hinduism and Buddhism in the context of Smith's first trip to India, his upbringing in China, his family experience with Christianity and then Judaism as his daughter married into that faith, and finally Islam as it has influenced his daily religious practice. Along the way, Moyers finds a creative way to pose the question to Smith about what in each religion is fundamental. Smith does not hesitate to tease out what he feels are the central features of each religion, and shows how they are all basically compatible. His own position is that each practice serves a unique need, personal, cultural, and historical. The close of the series shows how Smith has adopted pieces of all these world religions for his own daily practice, from yogic stretching to praying to Allah five times daily.
The clarity of the dialogue between Moyers and Smith in The Wisdom of Faith is tremendous. Though 15 years have passed since this was aired, it still contains insights we need, especially in light of the flood of half-truths and generalizations put forth in the media frenzy after the 9/11 attacks, and the general fog (for Westerners, at least) surrounding the religious practice of growing world powers like India and China. Like Smith's original treatise on religion, published in 1958 and still studied today, Bill Moyers: The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith will stand as a source of good instruction and inspiration for a long time to come. Separate from the teachings Smith has to offer, he's just an amazing person with incredible enthusiasm for life. Moyers sets the stage, providing great questions and drawing important insights from Smith's work. An impressive lifetime and a compelling subject is captured in five hours that slip by in what feels like 15 minutes.
