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. Upon asking the local university what the most popular class was, they were told it was Huston Smith's class. The series was the first TV show to offer college credit.

The success of the series led to the development of a book titled The Religions of Man (later re-titled The World's Religions), written by religious studies scholar Huston Smith. The book was first published in 1958 and has since been translated into twelve languages. It became "one of the most widely used college textbooks on comparative religion."