World Religions
“Religion, it must be understood, is not faith. Religion is the story of faith. It is an institutionalized system of symbols and metaphors (read rituals and myths) that provides a common language with which a community of faith can share with each other their numinous encounter with the Divine Presence.” ― Reza Aslan
Studying Religion
Question: What is the nature of reality? Why are we here? What is religion?
Religion – a system of beliefs and behaviors that formulates and answers questions that are important, recurrent, and must be answered.
"It’s the idea that, no matter the students’ own religious/spiritual identification of birth or choice, as scholars, their job is to study each tradition within an academic framework and from a place of understanding...The goal is for students to not only to grasp the learning outcomes, but to learn that proximity to story reduces prejudice." -J. Dana Trent
https://sojo.net/articles/teaching-empathy-world-creates-religious-others
Religion - Chapter 1.pdfChapter 1 - "Religious Responses"
A look at the beginnings of religion.
Greek Mythology PP.pptxAn overview of Greek Mythology.
There is an entire TedEd Channel on YouTube called "Mythic." It has videos that tell the stories of a wide range of myths.
Mythology
A good introduction to myths. What are they?
Homer and the Greeks
Archetypes
Tolkien and Lewis
ABOVE: We will watch parts of this film to more closely examine the nature of myths.
BELOW: Two short clips that look at how many mythic themes show up in The Lord of the Rings.
From J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books. A modern myth?
The Odyssey vs. The Dark Knight
Hinduism
If you're interested in learning more about Hinduism, check out this documentary.
Hindu Literature.docBuddhism
Textbook Buddhism.pdfA great documentary about the life of the Buddha and his teachings.
Judaism (and the other Abrahamic faiths - Christianity and Islam)
Textbook Judaism, part 1.pdfTextbook Judaism, part 2.pdf