ANDREW WILSON holds a PH.D. in Divinity from Harvard University and is currently Academic Dean of the Unification Theological Seminary.Born in Cambridge, UK, Ninian Smart was classically trained at Oxford University in languages, history, and philosophy. He made his lasting international mark, notably at (among the many other universities at which he taught) the University of Lancaster, in the UK, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, in the US. Beginning in 1967 at Lancaster, and 1976 at UCSB, he played a pivotal role at both institutions in helping to establish thriving programs in the academic study of religion--a role that had much to do with not only his many writings on the proper method for conducting the public study of religion, as well as his well-known cross-cultural research on many of the world's religions, but also the long list of graduate students he trained throughout the years.