Continuing to cram the Traditions and Scriptures MOOCs! I've now completed 3/8 of each of them, and my head is swimming with world religions. Did I ever know what Tatian's Diatesseron was, one of the first Bible harmonies? actually read from the Dharmashastras with their slightly conflicting accounts of gender relations? learn about the mevlud tradition in Turkey, where the Nativity of the Prophet is celebrated with song? encounter the argument against using the phrase "Hebrew Bible" since it glosses over vital differences between the Jewish and Christian textds? hear the Sutra of Golden Light's account of the expedient means of generating Buddha relics?
Truth to tell, all of this is new to me. I never had the chance to take a course in world religions, or even an "intro to" any of them. (Long long ago the redoubtable Mrs. Sleigh had me read Huston Smith's The Religions of Man.) I've picked up a sense of each of them in bits and pieces over the years from a diversity of contexts, many quite sophisticated and advanced, but haven't been through a concerted effort to make sense of them as traditions for new learners. Indeed I've probably spent more time reading and reproducing the arguments against the very idea of "world religions" than learning about them!
So this is refreshing and not a little humbling. Of course I'm still a card-carrying member of the guild of teachers of religious studies, so I'm also noticing what these five instructors are doing, often but not always with admiration. Where I'm tempted to object - as when Karen King includes Latter Day Saints, indeed giving them a longer description than Pentecostalism, in a survey of Christian communities - I stop and think that these instructors have presented this material many times before and know what works and what doesn't in laying out a "world religion" in a reflective way... then ask myself what they might be up to.
I have five more lessons to do before class on Monday... wish me luck!
Truth to tell, all of this is new to me. I never had the chance to take a course in world religions, or even an "intro to" any of them. (Long long ago the redoubtable Mrs. Sleigh had me read Huston Smith's The Religions of Man.) I've picked up a sense of each of them in bits and pieces over the years from a diversity of contexts, many quite sophisticated and advanced, but haven't been through a concerted effort to make sense of them as traditions for new learners. Indeed I've probably spent more time reading and reproducing the arguments against the very idea of "world religions" than learning about them!
So this is refreshing and not a little humbling. Of course I'm still a card-carrying member of the guild of teachers of religious studies, so I'm also noticing what these five instructors are doing, often but not always with admiration. Where I'm tempted to object - as when Karen King includes Latter Day Saints, indeed giving them a longer description than Pentecostalism, in a survey of Christian communities - I stop and think that these instructors have presented this material many times before and know what works and what doesn't in laying out a "world religion" in a reflective way... then ask myself what they might be up to.
I have five more lessons to do before class on Monday... wish me luck!
