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Comparative Religion

Explore the nature of faith with this in-depth look at how five great faiths address core issues—including creation stories, concepts of the divine, and ultimate goals—in parallel and different ways.
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Comparative Religion—Who, What, Why, How

01: Comparative Religion—Who, What, Why, How

Religion can be difficult to define. Most people say, "I know it when I see it." But what is the "it" you see? This lecture introduces an approach to help you answer this question and also addresses both subjectivity and the importance of understanding human religiousness.

33 min
Exploring Similarities and Differences

02: Exploring Similarities and Differences

You learn 12 common features found in all religions and begin gaining the foundation for broader inquiries about similarities and differences among Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, including those that occur not only between faiths, but within the same one.

30 min
The Sacred, the Holy, and the Profane

03: The Sacred, the Holy, and the Profane

Following a brief overview of some prominent single-discipline attempts to explain religion's origins, you explore three broader frameworks for understanding: Rudolf Otto's "The Idea of the Holy," Mircea Eliade's "The Sacred and The Profane," and Wilfred Cantwell Smith's "The Meaning and End of Religion."

31 min
Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Objects

04: Sacred Time, Sacred Space, Sacred Objects

Eliade's observations about how different religions distinguish between the sacred and the profane (ordinary) and assign sacred meaning to times, places, and objects come alive for you through examples drawn from several of those religions.

30 min
Sacred People—Prophets, Sages, Saviors

05: Sacred People—Prophets, Sages, Saviors

Foundational religious leaders fulfill vital purposes in all religions. In the first of two lectures devoted to such sacred people, you learn the different roles played by figures like Confucius, Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Muhammad, Jesus, and Krishna.

31 min
Sacred People—Clergy, Monastics, Shamans

06: Sacred People—Clergy, Monastics, Shamans

You explore some of the more familiar figures charged with carrying out essential functions and rituals in their religious communities and learn how their roles have evolved. You also encounter the shaman, a lesser-known figure found not just in tribal cultures but in the great world religions as well.

30 min
Sacred Signs, Analogues, and Sacraments

07: Sacred Signs, Analogues, and Sacraments

Symbols are how human beings communicate. This lecture reveals to you how different religions employ these essential tools, not only through "representational" symbols whose meanings must be learned, but especially through "presentational" symbols whose meanings are experienced on a deeper level.

32 min
Creation Myths and Sacred Stories

08: Creation Myths and Sacred Stories

A religion's sacred stories are profoundly true to those who embrace them. One type "the creation story" is common to all religions, which have given us hundreds of such stories and myths. You learn their categories and the four functions they serve.

30 min
From Sacred Stories and Letters to Doctrine

09: From Sacred Stories and Letters to Doctrine

What happens when a religion's founding figures and first adherents are gone, and divergent views arise among later generations? By looking at the early history of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, you see how adherents of the three great missionary religions developed frameworks for sustaining their faiths.

31 min
Sacred Texts—The Bible and the Qur'an

10: Sacred Texts—The Bible and the Qur'an

In examining the processes by which authoritative scriptures of the three Abrahamic religions became fixed, you see common approaches and distinctive differences. And you learn that even within the same faith, differences persist over what constitutes authoritative texts and how to interpret them.

31 min
Sacred Texts for Hindus and Buddhists

11: Sacred Texts for Hindus and Buddhists

The massive body of literature deemed sacred by Hindus and Buddhists can be as bewildering as the number of ways in which they are understood and used. This lecture gives you a demystifying guide to the major types of sacred literature.

31 min
Polytheism, Dualism, Monism, and Monotheism

12: Polytheism, Dualism, Monism, and Monotheism

Nearly all religions include some concept of divinity, each fitting into one of four distinct categories. But you quickly see that the lines of separation can be fluid, and the question, "What do we mean when we say God?" can be more provocative than you might imagine.

31 min
From Birth to Death—Religious Rituals

13: From Birth to Death—Religious Rituals

You explore the rituals that mark key stages in life (birth, childhood, coming of age, marriage, and death) and see striking similarity across all religions, as seen in the rituals of baptism, bar mitzvah, Buddhist and Christian ordination, and funerals.

31 min
Daily, Weekly, Annual Religious Rituals

14: Daily, Weekly, Annual Religious Rituals

In a lecture that may forever change your perception of Passover, Christmas, or noon prayers at the mosque, you learn how calendar-based rituals use sacred stories, time, space, and objects to fulfill important pedagogical, sociological, and psychological functions.

32 min
Ritual Sacrifice in the World's Religions

15: Ritual Sacrifice in the World's Religions

At first glance, ancient practices involving animal or human sacrifice are shocking to modern sensibilities. An examination of ritual sacrifice reveals common understandings and outcomes and leaves you with new insight into why people engage in sacrificial rituals.

31 min
The Human Predicament—How to Overcome It

16: The Human Predicament—How to Overcome It

Every religion is predicated on the notion that the world we experience is not ideal and tries to explain the nature and purpose of existence. This lecture provides a framework for the next five lectures, including a consideration of the universal problems of evil and injustice.

32 min
The Problems of Sin and Forgetfulness

17: The Problems of Sin and Forgetfulness

Although Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share many roots, the three Abrahamic traditions approach the human predicament in different ways. This lecture offers you the chance to observe through a new lens the ways in which the three faiths approach issues like sin, sacrifice, and ultimate accountability.

32 min
Breaking through the Illusion of Reality

18: Breaking through the Illusion of Reality

Although Hinduism and Buddhism encompass hundreds of varying traditions, all address the "illusion of reality" as the predicament trapping people in the cycles of death and rebirth. This lecture explains this cyclical perspective and how it differs from the linear viewpoint of the Abrahamic traditions.

31 min
The Goals of Religious Life

19: The Goals of Religious Life

Are the goals of existence only otherworldly? Can any be experienced here and now? You learn that no matter how the different religions conceive of the afterlife, they are united in a shared understanding that ultimate meaning must be found beyond physical existence.

31 min
The Way of Faith and the Way of Devotion

20: The Way of Faith and the Way of Devotion

Religion provides four basic paths by which faithful followers may pursue the ultimate goals: the ways of faith, devotion, disciplined action, and meditation. This lecture explores the first two, using examples drawn from Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

30 min
The Way of Action and the Way of Meditation

21: The Way of Action and the Way of Meditation

Disciplined action is the most widely practiced path, shown to you here in the legal traditions of Islam and biblical Israel and the rigid Hindu caste system. You also examine disciplined meditation, a form of action practiced by Buddhists and Hindus.

32 min
The Way of the Mystics

22: The Way of the Mystics

Virtually all religions include adherents whose religious practice centers on the mystical path. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, the lines separating religions become blurred or erased. You explore several key commonalities and differences among Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim mystics.

32 min
The Evolution of Religious Institutions

23: The Evolution of Religious Institutions

As religions begin to grow, structure becomes a requirement, whether for perpetuation, organization, or doctrinal clarification. You see how the first followers of the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad attempted to resolve challenges through institutional structures, as often borrowed or adapted as created anew.

32 min
Religious Diversity in the 21st Century

24: Religious Diversity in the 21st Century

Your course concludes with a consideration of the ways people in different religions understand their particular experiences and traditions in the context of religious diversity. You see several examples of the positive and inclusive approaches that are now part of the 21st century landscape.

30 min

Overview Course No. 6172

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About

Charles Kimball

Given the depth of feelings and the passionate convictions connected to religion, few conversations are more urgently needed in the fragile, interdependent, and all too quarrelsome world of the 21st century.

INSTITUTION

University of Oklahoma
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