The Religions of Man began as a class taught by Huston Smith at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 1955, the producers at KECT, the local NET (precursor of PBS) affiliate, were looking for original content for the newly launched national network.

"[1][2][3] The class, The Religions of Man, was first broadcast in 1955 as a weekly TV series that had 17 episodes.

The success of the TV series led to Smith writing a book that became the standard textbook for college and university classes on world religions.

The book has ten chapters, with an introduction and subsequent chapters covering Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity and 'primal' religions (including Australian Aboriginal beliefs ).