I have organized this textbook around the way I teach my introductory course in the philosophy of religion. Since I got to design this textbook and it’s for use in my own courses, it directly follows the order in which I teach the topics and each chapter makes up the reading assignment for about 1.5 hours of class time. In other words, I meet with students for thirty 1.5-hour sessions in a semester (hence there are 30 chapters in this work), and for the first meeting, we read and discuss chapter 1, for our second we cover chapter 2, then chapter 3, and so on. It leaves the guess work out of what we cover and when we cover it and keeps things very organized and streamlined. I tell you this now to give you some insight into the way I approach my classroom and time with my students. Since this is intended for an intro-level course, keeping things on track, moving, and organized in this way has proved to be very beneficial for my students.

Short Description:
The Bible is one of the most published books in human history. It is also one of the most misquoted, misunderstood and misused books in human history. This happens because people are not always aware that the Bible is not a book, it is a collection of diverse writings. The Bible might even be called an anthology, and it will include everything from poetry to genealogy, pithy sayings to architectural mandates, mythology to letters. Knowing what one is reading helps one understand the ideas in the writings. We read letters in the context of who wrote them and who received them. We read sermons understanding the speaker's perspective may differ from the listener's perspective. So this text is an attempt to give historic, literary, geographical and cultural context to a complex and often poorly understood set of materials. This is very much an ebook, and needs to be used in that format. Pdfs and other printed versions will lose a great deal of the content.

Word Count: 138043

Included H5P activities: 8

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically as part of a bulk import process by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided. As a result, there may be errors in formatting.)

Religion is not necessarily what you think it is! This free course, Religious diversity: rethinking religion, will present a selection of the vast variety of religious practices and beliefs in Britain today. Having familiarity with religions is increasingly required to make sense of issues of local, national and global importance.

This course will introduce skills that enable you to better understand and interact with people whose ideas and actions have been influenced by religion. Understanding religion will also help you have a deeper appreciation of ideas about the secular and how secularity functions in British society today.

This taste of religious studies as a discipline will begin to enable you to interact with religious diversity in today’s world in a more confident, informed way.

This course will also give you a taste of the Open University course A227 Exploring religion: places, practices, texts and experiences. This short free course focuses on a selection of religious places and practices in London. However, the full course explores religion in a more global context, with a focus on how religion is actually lived and practiced.

Note: the copyright holder must be contacted for permissions if a user wants to alter or transform the materials in any way. Please review the materials for more information.

1: Zoroastrian Scriptures
1.1: Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu
1.2: The Coming of Saoshyant

2: Hindu Scriptures
2.1: Vedic Creation Hymn
2.2: The Isha Upanishad
2.3: Chandogya Upanishad
2.4: Bhagavad Gita

3: Buddhist Scriptures
3.1: The Life of the Buddha - Buddha’s Escape from his life of Luxury
3.2: The Dhammapada Lecture One
3.3: The Heart Sutra

4: Jewish Scriptures
4.1: Bereshit – The Opening of the Torah
4.2: Moshe is Called by God
4.3: Talmud
4.4: Kabbalah

5: Christian Scriptures
5.1: The Beatitudes
5.2: Resurrection of Jesus
5.3: Paul’s Discourse on Love
5.4: Book of Revelations

6: Muslim Scriptures
6.1: The Fatihah
6.2: The Quran
6.3: Surah 96
6.4: Hadith Abu-Dawud

An introduction to Shinto, one of Japan's earliest belief systems. Created by Asian Art Museum.

An overview of the founding of the Sikh religion started by Guru Nanak. Discussion of persecution by the Mughals and militarization by Gurus Har Gobind, Teg Bahadur and Gobind Singh. Overview of Khalsa.

The book proposes the hypothesis that six generic ways of being religious may be found in any large-scale religious tradition such as Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or Hinduism: sacred rite, right action, devotion, shamanic mediation, mystical quest, and reasoned inquiry. These are recurrent ways in which, socially and individually, devout members of these traditions take up and appropriate their stories and symbols in order to draw near to, and come into right relationship with, what the traditions attest to be the ultimate reality.

An introduction to the Sunni and Shia schism that forms in Islam after the death of Muhammed.

As Ali becomes caliph, the Ummayads under the leadership of Muawiya refuse to recognize him, sparking the first Muslim Civil War. The increased division leads eventually to the Tragedy at Karbala which is a defining event for Shia Muslims.

An introduction to the major schools of Buddhist thought--Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism.

From the Vedas, the oldest known Hindu scriptures, scholars have learned about the existence of the Vedic period in ancient Indian history that followed the Indus River Valley civilization. Sal explains more about this early society.

Short Description:
Humans across the globe and throughout millennia have searched for answers to questions like, "why are we here?" or "what am I supposed to do with my life?"And the answers people have found, or created, or chosen, have varied as widely as the cultures and people themselves. Some people focus on rules. Some focus on afterlives. Some look to become whole. Some seek adventure and learning.So this text, while full of various ways that people have searched and discovered and created, is only touching a few of the bigger traditions in our world. Hopefully each chapter will introduce the reader to some ideas from that specific tradition that enlighten them as to how a specific group of people think, believe, and live.This text is set up to be an ebook. The various videos, links and resources will only really work if the user keeps to the digital format. Read this book on a device or computer--it will be a much more rewarding experience! The translation to a pdf is less than successful, font sizes are erratic, which is not the case in the ebook, unfortunately, and printing this book will make for a very large and cumbersome chunk of paper!

Word Count: 56689

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically as part of a bulk import process by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided. As a result, there may be errors in formatting.)

An introduction to Zen, a form of Buddhism that emphasizes seeking one's own Buddha nature through meditation.