Ninian Smart, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Honourary Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster, is one of the world's foremost authorities on the comparative study of religions. His early work involved an innovative and fruitful application of philosophy to the historical and comparative study of religious traditions and he has subsequently made major contributions to the fields of philosophy of religion, education and methodology. In this volume, eighteen professors in the field of religious studies have chosen to honour him by contributing original essays on a wide range of topics related to his work and on themes that have value and significance to the field in general. Also included in the volume is a brief account of Smart's career as an introduction to both Ninian Smart's thought and work and, more generally, the academic study of religion.