Comparative Religion

By: Charles Kimball, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Charles Kimball

Get a solid working knowledge of the spiritual beliefs that unite and divide us - as well as the perspective from the other side of these divisions. These 24 lectures offer you an opportunity to gain a solid grasp of the key ideas of religion itself - the issues that repeatedly surface when you look at any faith's beliefs, practices, and organization. Using five major religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism - as illustrations of how religions can address the same core issues in parallel and different ways, Professor Kimball leads you on an exploration of religion's complex and multidimensional nature. It's an exploration that can strengthen the interpersonal understanding that underlies your daily relationships, enhance your perception of events in a diverse world, and deepen your appreciation of your own beliefs and the traditions followed by others.

Using the basics of these five major religions as a starting point - and explaining those basics so that no prior knowledge is needed - Professor Kimball plunges deeply into each to reveal and clarify the essential structural components shared by all faiths. Among the aspects of faith you compare and contrast are creation myths and sacred stories, concepts of the divine, sacred texts and spaces, and religion's ultimate goals - the reasons its adherents give them such importance.

After completing these lectures, you'll be able to "see with a native eye", as Professor Kimball puts it, when you wonder why followers of a given religion believe or act as they do.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2008 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2008 The Great Courses

Thought provoking

I enjoyed learning about the five major religions. This was a good review. It also helped me link the Jewish Muslim and Christian views. For a classroom style book this was very informative and even enjoyable

excellent synopsis and objectivity.

as a Christian I have been looking for an objective description and Analysis of all the major world religions. This seemed to fit the bill. I was very pleased with the scope and detail and attempt at fairness and objectivity which is very difficult to do in this explosive area

wealth of knowledge

Great course with information presented objectively. Lecturer clearly has deep experience in study of world regligions and also personal experience interacting with people of different faiths.

Life Changing

Excellent. Thoroughly enriching experience. I learned so much. I found myself going back over sections so as to fully absorb the wisdom.

Great information.

I enjoyed these lectures and found many points enlightening but agree with other reviews that it is very Christian oriented. Less focus on the bible and Jesus and more comparisons on the contrasts and similarities would have been better.

Very Good introduction

Where does Comparative Religion rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is my first great courses book, and I find it very relevant, easy and covering a lot of topics. The best thing in it, that it developed my hunger for more of those !

good

I wish it went more in depth. much of what was said seemed very obvious

Evident Bias in Narration

The narrator is a Baptist minister and tends to give Christianity the spotlight throughout the narration. You will find that he spends significantly more time reading texts out of the Bible, and does not do the same favor nearly as often to texts he mentions, such as the Baghavad Gita, the Upanishads, or even the Quran. As someone who is familiar with comparative religions on an empirical level, this audiobook was somewhat beneficial for me as I enter my major in Comparative Religions.

Too much attention is given to Christianity in this audiobook, which is disappointing as this is an all too prevalent issue amongst teachers of Comparative Religion as it is. The Narrator also too frequently brings up anecdotes of his experiences in the Christian church, which each religion of study in the course seems to be contrasted with. Additionally, on three occasions he felt compelled to share how successful he was in particular classes during his academic career at Harvard, which was honestly annoying at times. The narrator sounds like your typical Christian-radio talk show speaker, so the narration is monotonous at best.

comparative religion

this was great I am now looking to take the course and comparative Religion Now

Great Course!!

I have been self studying this topic for a few years and this was one of the best courses as it was easy to listen to!!