Ninian —A reminiscence

In 1969 I was appointed Principal Lecturer and Head of Religious Studies at Bishop Otter
College, Chichester. For many of us the 19 60s was a turbulent decade. It was also exciting and somehow full of promise. One felt things were changing and a brighter, more peaceful future lay ahead. Some of us however were a little too set in our ways to be “going to San Francisco”, remembering “to put a flower in our hair”! For those of us who did our theological studies in the forties and fifties, the intellectual explosions of the sixties tested our adaptability, not to say our sanity! If that were not enough, the whole basis of the rationale for Religious Education was being seriously challenged! Ninian’s first published contribution to that debate was “Secular Education and the Logic of Religion” (1968). As far as I could see, none of this had penetrated Bishop Otter College!

So as a preparation to taking up my post, to help sort out in my mind what I wanted to
achieve, I wrote to Professor Ninian Smart at Lancaster and asked if I might come and see him. Not only did he consent to see me, but he gave me a whole day of his time during which we discussed at length the whole basis of the very innovative Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster and his view of Religious Education in schools. In professional terms it was the most important seminar in my life, and it was conducted as between equals. Ninian never talked down to you. He always made you feel that your contribution to the dialogue was worth while. I found an immediate rapport — helped by finding that, like myself he was a Scottish Episcopalian. (Thus also supporting the view that religion and cultural identity are inextricably mixed!)

Ninian once said, at a time when definitions of religion were being hotly (and often fruitlessly) debated, “Whatever religion is, there’s a lot of it about!” He used a descriptive formula in defining religion rather than trying to extract an essence “sui generis” (as the scholars say). It was his original “Six Dimensions” which became for many the tools for organising teaching in school and for me the most exciting insight was on the role of Myth in religion.

We met again on many other occasions — especially at Shap Conferences initially at the Shap Wells Hotel. Ninian was a very sociable person and great raconteur and when the work was over he shared the company in the bar. He brought a great good sense of humour to these occasions. I always admired his capacity to “see into” things. Every meeting with him brought to me some little nugget of unusual insight, some new slant to my understanding.

Yet for all the outward appearance of objective study, Ninian was more than an academic. He liked people and he believed that the understanding of people’s religion was the key to understanding them and being able to work in harmony with them. Latterly he assimilated religions into the concept of “World Views”, by which he meant the ways people interpreted the meaning of life.

Although in recent years I saw little of him because he was always in some other place, such as California or Australia, I miss him very much and am sad to think that his great human understanding and intellectual perception is no longer available. Most of all I miss his ready and generous friendship.

John Rankin