June 6, 2014

Learn About Comparative Religion with These 12 Talks

Learn more about Comparative Religion studies with these 12 talks available for free on audio & video. LearnOutLoud has been showcasing religion discussions and lectures for years as a part of our Free Resource of the Day Emails. From this archive, we’ve hand-picked the best material, including a program on the history of American religion, a comparison of Christianity and Islam, and an examination of the very beginning of the world’s most enduring religious traditions. Speakers include comparative religion experts such as Huston Smith, Karen Armstrong, Robert Wright, and many more. If you are curious about how the different faiths interact and differ, this is the best place to start:

1. Huston Smith on MeaningOfLife.tv

In this streaming video interview, MeaningOfLife.tv host Robert Wright interviews world religions scholar Huston Smith (author of the bestselling classic The World’s Religions). Wright asks Smith some difficult questions regarding the state of religion in the present world and about Smith’s tolerant and inclusive views towards all religions. Huston Smith replies with clarity and compassion. This interview is available as a streaming video.

2. Robert Wright on The Evolution of God

In this presentation from the Google Talks, author Robert Wright talks about the cultural evolution of God. After taking a survey of how Islam and Christianity developed, Wright found that religion was either belligerent or tolerant based on the historical context. Religious tolerance typically occurs when as Wright puts it, the leaders on both sides realize they can “do business”. This “zero-sum game” concept forms the core of Wright’s view that globalization will put even more pressure on the world religious community to find common ground.

3. Karen Armstrong: What is Religion?

In her talk “What is Religion”, Armstrong fights a thunderstorm to address how the differing definitions of “faith” have led to unnecessary tension between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She describes how in many cases, misinterpretations have led to the pervasive idea that God’s laws are set in stone and cannot be altered. Quite the contrary, Armstrong points to how many notable Rabbi, Christian luminaries, and Muslim holy men have used God’s word as a living message that must always be interpreted in light of the current human condition. This take on belief as a transformative, constantly evolving dialogue between man and his creator forms the core of Armstrong’s ongoing message of tolerance between faith traditions. For Armstrong, belief is not something you accept blindly, it’s something you use as a tool towards self-transcendence.

4. Revealing World Religions Podcast

Revealing World Religions Podcast is offered by ThinkingStrings.com and features the narrated text of Revealing World Religions by Dr. Cynthia Eller of Montclair State University. This podcasted audio book features these 10 modules covering many of the World’s Religions:

* Exploring Religion
* Hinduism
* Confucianism
* Taoism
* Buddhism
* Shinto
* Judaism
* Christianity
* Islam
* Religious Pluralism

All of these are currently available on the feed and work as introductions to these religious traditions.

5. Keith Ward on MeaningOfLife.tv

In this streaming video released by Meaning of Life, noted Oxford Divinity Professor Keith Ward discusses his argument that the three major western religions share the same God. Ward compares Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, and includes other religions within his concept of a monotheistic God whose face may change according to cultural understanding, but whose major attributes are consistent among all. This fascinating conversation goes on to touch on related topics such as self-denial, the problem of evil and how physics is making spirituality more and more compatible with science. A must for anyone interested in a modern take on religion.

6. Karen Armstrong in Conversation with Alan Jones

Watch this discussion between author Karen Armstrong and Rev. Alan Jones, the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. They discuss Armstrong’s latest book The Bible: A Biography and Armstrong provides her interpretation of The Good Book. They discuss biblical criticism, biblical literalism, and the Golden Rule. They also confront the New Atheists who have recently attacked the Abrahamic religions. This talk is available on MP3 download and streaming video through FORA.tv.

7. What Is Religion?

This is the first lecture from the Modern Scholar course Faith and Reason: The Philosophy of Religion taught by Professor Peter Kreeft. In this lecture Professor Kreeft explores what religion is and what questions it tries to answer. He goes over a brief history of philosophical definitions of religion. He feels that religion relies on faith and experience, while philosophy focuses on reason and logical argument, and yet he finds many ways that the fields of philosophy and religion have intersected throughout history.

8. Spiritual Classics Podcast

We’ve launched a new podcast at LearnOutLoud.com entitled Spiritual Classics. In the coming weeks we plan to feature passages of classics texts from a variety of spiritual traditions. We’ve started the podcast off with an excerpt from William James’ classic work The Varieties of Religious Experience in which he lectures on mystical experience. We promise many more fascinating selections from religious classics so please subscribe.

9. America’s Changing Religious Landscape

In this insightful program presented on NPR’s Speaking of Faith, host Krista Tippet interviews historian Martin Marty about America’s changing religious focus. With a firm command of the subject based on years of research, Marty identifies where and when Protestant values became politicized, and how this gave rise to the modern fundamentalist movement in the 1980s. Marty’s carefully cultivated data reveals a country that is still quite spiritual, and a future that is difficult to predict now that religion has become so central to the national discourse. This program is available on streaming audio and MP3 download on the Speaking of Faith website.

10. Comparing Western Christendom & the Abode of Islam

This is the first lecture from the Modern Scholar course Islam and the West taught by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr. In this lecture professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr discusses the similarities and differences of early western Christendom and the Islamic World known as Dar al-Islam. He talks about the origins of each religious tradition and how Christianity split into western Christendom and the Eastern Orthodox Church centered in Byzantium, while Islam did not split and expanded quite rapidly throughout the Middle East and into Africa and Asia. He also talks the about the importance of the sacred Islamic language of Arabic which spread throughout the Islamic world, whereas Christendom’s languages were much more diverse. And he discusses a number of other comparisons between early Christianity and Islam. Download this lecture on MP3.

11. The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Comparative religion author Karen Armstrong discusses her book The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. In this book she explores the axial age of religion in which Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and other religions were laying their spiritual foundations. She talks about how focusing on compassion for all people became a central tenet of all of these religions. She quotes from many religious teachers of the time including the Buddha, Christ, Confucius, and others. This talk was delivered at Books, Inc. and is available on streaming video from FORA.tv.

12. The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James which is now available for free on audio download from Librivox. This classic work on the nature of religion is by the great American psychologist and philosopher William James. The book comes from a series of lectures that James delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 on “natural religion”. The resulting work is considered one of the most important texts on psychology and spirituality, and is often cited as one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Download this volunteer narrated unabridged audio book for free!