Comparative Religion

Get a solid working knowledge of the spiritual beliefs that unite and divide us - as well as the perspective from the other side of these divisions. These 24 lectures offer you an opportunity to gain a solid grasp of the key ideas of religion itself - the issues that repeatedly surface when you look at any faith's beliefs, practices, and organization. Using five major religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism - as illustrations of how religions can address the same core issues in parallel and different ways, Professor Kimball leads you on an exploration of religion's complex and multidimensional nature. It's an exploration that can strengthen the interpersonal understanding that underlies your daily relationships, enhance your perception of events in a diverse world, and deepen your appreciation of your own beliefs and the traditions followed by others. Using the basics of these five major religions as a starting point - and explaining those basics so that no prior knowledge is needed - Professor Kimball plunges deeply into each to reveal and clarify the essential structural components shared by all faiths. Among the aspects of faith you compare and contrast are creation myths and sacred stories, concepts of the divine, sacred texts and spaces, and religion's ultimate goals - the reasons its adherents give them such importance. After completing these lectures, you'll be able to "see with a native eye", as Professor Kimball puts it, when you wonder why followers of a given religion believe or act as they do.

All Lectures:
1. Comparative Religion - Who, What, Why, How
2. Exploring Similarities and Differences
3. The Sacred, the Holy, and the Profane
4. Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Objects
5. Sacred People - Prophets, Sages, Saviors
6. Sacred People - Clergy, Monastics, Shamans
7. Sacred Signs, Analogues, and Sacraments
8. Creation Myths and Sacred Stories
9. From Sacred Stories and Letters to Doctrine
10. Sacred Texts - The Bible and the Qur'an
11. Sacred Texts for Hindus and Buddhists
12. Polytheism, Dualism, Monism, and Monotheism
13. From Birth to Death - Religious Rituals
14. Daily, Weekly, Annual Religious Rituals
15. Ritual Sacrifice in the World's Religions
16. The Human Predicament - How to Overcome It
17. The Problems of Sin and Forgetfulness
18. Breaking through the Illusion of Reality
19. The Goals of Religious Life
20. The Way of Faith and the Way of Devotion
21. The Way of Action and the Way of Meditation
22. The Way of the Mystics
23. The Evolution of Religious Institutions
24. Religious Diversity in the 21st Century