For half of the 20th century, Huston Smith covered the world seeking answers to the supreme questions in life: Why are we here? What do we really want? What does it all mean?

From humble village temples to glinting mosques and towering cathedrals, Smith has uncovered the spiritual treasures buried beneath thousands of years of historical and scientific distortions. Now, in his own words, Smith shares the true story of his epic search for the seeds of wisdom in Religions of the World.

Huston Smith's intent is to awaken the fullness of our humanity - to encourage us to break free from the narrow corridors of orthodox theology and awaken us to the values and beliefs that allow us to triumph as people and as cultures. For this is not the story of religious institutions but of the eternal truths that inspire them, as viewed through the eyes of this great scholar, teacher, and author.

With Huston Smith as your personal guide, you will examine the defining perspectives within the world's central religions - the teachings that have touched his own life directly - and learn how these traditions differ while retaining a common interior language that speaks to our highest aspirations. Religions of the World looks beyond information, beyond doctrine and dogma, into the wisdom at the very heart of these great traditions: Taoism, Christianity, Judaism, primal religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam.

Here is perhaps the greatest story ever told: how religion comes alive and lights the way with a sacred flame, bringing the secret of joy into the darkest corners of the human soul.