The Meaning and End of Religion

"Any adequate interpretation of a Christina's faith . . . must make room for the fact that other
intelligent, devout, and moral men [and women], including perhaps his [or her] own friends, are Buddhists, Hindus, or Muslims. . . . One has not understood religion if one's interpretation is applicable to only one of its forms. On the other hand, neither has one understood religion if one's interpretation does justice only to some abstraction of religiousness in general but not to the fact that for most men [and women] of faith, loyalty and concern are not for any such abstraction but quite specifically and perhaps even exclusively for their own unique tradition--or even for one section within that. The Christian and the Muslim must be seen, certainly, in a world in which other men [and women] are Hindus, Buddhists, and Jews."

William Cantwell Smith

The Meaning and End of Religion, 1991, pp. 2, 3.