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.

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.

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