Comparative Religion Course

Lesson 1 • Core Concepts in Comparative Religion

Introduces sacred/profane, myth, ritual, symbol, and soteriology as cross-traditional analytical tools. Provides the conceptual vocabulary used throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Academic vs. Theological Approaches

Distinguishes insider and outsider perspectives in religious scholarship. Students learn to bracket personal belief while maintaining analytical rigor.

Lesson 3 • Defining Religion Across Cultures

Examines substantive, functional, and family-resemblance definitions of religion. Establishes why no single definition suffices and how scholars navigate this challenge.

Lesson 1 • Animism and Spirit Worlds

Explores animist ontologies in which persons, animals, and objects possess spiritual agency. Grounds students in relational cosmologies before encountering text-based traditions.

Lesson 2 • Rites of Passage and Life Cycles

Applies van Gennep's tripartite model to birth, initiation, marriage, and death rites. Establishes a comparative framework reused in subsequent chapters.

Lesson 3 • Oral Tradition and Sacred Narrative

Examines how myth, legend, and cosmogony are transmitted without writing. Demonstrates that oral traditions carry theological complexity equal to textual ones.

Lesson 1 • Devotional Traditions and Ritual Life

Examines Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism as devotional streams alongside puja and pilgrimage. Connects lived practice to doctrinal frameworks.

Lesson 2 • Historical Development of Hinduism

Traces Vedic religion through the Upanishadic revolution to classical and medieval Hinduism. Provides the chronological spine for understanding doctrinal evolution.

Lesson 3 • Caste, Gender, and Social Ethics

Critically examines varna, jati, and gender norms within Hindu social thought. Prepares students to engage social ethics comparatively across traditions.

Lesson 4 • Major Philosophical Schools

Compares Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita Vedanta alongside Samkhya and Yoga. Equips students to trace philosophical debates across traditions.

Lesson 1 • Mahayana: The Great Vehicle

Explores bodhisattva ideal, sunyata, and Buddha-nature across Mahayana schools. Shows how doctrinal expansion reshaped Buddhist soteriology and ethics.

Lesson 2 • Origins and the Life of the Buddha

Reconstructs the historical and legendary biography of Siddhartha Gautama. Establishes the narrative foundation for Buddhist doctrine and community formation.

Lesson 3 • Theravada: The Elder's Way

Examines Pali canon, Abhidhamma, and the arhat ideal in Theravada Buddhism. Provides the baseline against which Mahayana innovations are measured.

Lesson 4 • Vajrayana and Global Buddhism

Analyzes Tibetan tantric Buddhism and the globalization of Buddhist practice. Addresses contemporary adaptations including secular mindfulness movements.

Lesson 1 • Denominations and Modern Jewish Identity

Compares Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements on law and identity. Addresses Zionism, the Holocaust, and contemporary Jewish pluralism.

Lesson 2 • Biblical Origins and Covenant Theology

Traces the Abrahamic covenant through Sinai to the Davidic promise in Hebrew scripture. Establishes the theological grammar underlying all subsequent Jewish thought.

Lesson 3 • Rabbinic Judaism and the Oral Torah

Examines the Mishnah, Talmud, and midrash as responses to the destruction of the Temple. Shows how rabbinic interpretation became the engine of Jewish continuity.

Lesson 1 • Catholic and Orthodox Traditions

Compares Roman Catholic sacramental theology with Eastern Orthodox theosis and iconography. Highlights the Great Schism's lasting theological and liturgical consequences.

Lesson 2 • Protestant Reformation and Its Legacy

Examines Luther, Calvin, and radical reformers on scripture, grace, and church authority. Traces how Reformation principles generated ongoing denominational fragmentation.

Lesson 3 • Origins in Second Temple Judaism

Situates Jesus within first-century Jewish apocalypticism and the early Jesus movement. Establishes the Jewish matrix from which Christian theology emerged.

Lesson 4 • Creeds, Councils, and Christology

Analyzes the ecumenical councils and their doctrinal outcomes on the nature of Christ. Shows how institutional authority shaped orthodox Christian identity.

Lesson 1 • Origins and the Life of the Prophet

Reconstructs the historical and theological significance of Muhammad's prophetic career. Establishes the Quran and Sunnah as the twin sources of Islamic authority.

Lesson 2 • Five Pillars and Islamic Practice

Analyzes the five pillars as the structural framework of Muslim religious life. Connects ritual practice to theological convictions about submission and community.

Lesson 3 • Sufism and Islamic Mysticism

Examines Sufi orders, concepts of fana and baqa, and the role of the spiritual master. Connects Islamic mysticism to broader comparative mysticism themes.

Lesson 4 • Sunni, Shia, and Sectarian Diversity

Traces the political and theological origins of the Sunni-Shia split and subsequent sects. Addresses Ibadi, Ahmadiyya, and other minority traditions within Islam.

Lesson 1 • Religion in the Modern Secular World

Analyzes secularization theory, post-secular critique, and the global resurgence of religion. Prepares students to assess religion's role in contemporary public life.

Lesson 2 • Mysticism Across Traditions

Compares mystical experience, union language, and apophatic theology across traditions. Tests perennialist and constructivist theories against specific textual evidence.

Lesson 3 • Religion, Gender, and Sexuality

Analyzes how traditions construct gender roles, regulate sexuality, and respond to feminist critique. Examines reform movements challenging patriarchal religious structures.

Lesson 4 • Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding

Examines just war theory, martyrdom, and religiously motivated violence alongside peacebuilding traditions. Avoids reductive explanations by situating violence in political context.