Conversant with contemporary scientists and sciences, Smith speaks appreciatively of scientific contributions, but also with an awareness of the limitations of science to explore matters of the spirit or to prove anything about the existence or nonexistence of God. As a former faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and various other major universities, Smith shares personally from his experiences with fellow intellectuals who often devalue religion's contribution to knowledge. In this compact book, readers are invited on a journey through modernity's philosophic tunnel that restricts reality to a scientism that claims that material entities are the most fundamental things that exist, and that the scientific method is the only, or most, reliable method of getting at the truth. Smith's appeal to the reader is his gift for making complex theories and data clear and understandable, without simplistically distorting the viewpoints of others.
Pithy quotations sprinkled throughout the pages are alone almost worth the price of the book.
Unfortunately, Smith's failure throughout the volume to include footnotes severely restricts one's ability either to double-check his assertions or to explore these writings further. An expert on world religions, Smith weaves a tapestry of religious understandings, respecting differences and noting commonalities, without ever attempting to be syncretistic. His historical knowledge and personal spiritual depth, combined with intellectual understandings of science and other spheres of human knowledge, provide a comprehensive perspective on the appropriate place of religion in human experience and societies. Without retreating from contemporary advances in the struggle for human rights, equality, ecological integrity or personal freedoms, Smith emphasizes the rich spiritual and ethical bases that undergird these postmodern achievements. Intellectually, Smith critically examines every scientific, societal or religious axiom, but, ultimately, his mind and heart invite the reader to see the world and reality through a mystic's perspective.