The School of Human Inquiry · philosophy, history & belief
World Religions
The major traditions read on their own terms — their texts, their practices, and the questions each one answers.
A fair-minded tour of the living traditions, from the Ganges to Jerusalem to Kyoto.
Syllabus · 5 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — Studying Religion
Insider and outsider views · Ritual, myth, and doctrine · What counts as sacred
Unit II — Traditions of India
Hindu texts and practice · The Buddha's diagnosis · Jain nonviolence · Sikh scripture and community
Unit III — Traditions of East Asia
Confucian order · Daoist spontaneity · Shinto and the sense of place
Unit IV — The Abrahamic Family
Judaism: covenant and law · Christianity: incarnation and creed · Islam: submission and the Five Pillars
Unit V — Living Religion
Pilgrimage · Calendars and festivals · Religion in secular states
Torah, Prophets, and Writings read closely — as poetry, as law, and as evidence.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~24 hours
Unit I — Torah
Two creation accounts, side by side · The ancestral narratives · Exodus and covenant · Law codes in their ancient context
Unit II — Prophets
Kingship and its critics · Amos and the demand for justice · Exile and the reshaping of hope
Unit III — Writings
Psalms as poetry · Job and the problem of suffering · Wisdom in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes
Unit IV — Afterlives
How the canon formed · The Dead Sea Scrolls · Translation from the Septuagint to today
From seventh-century Arabia to a quarter of humanity — the history, scripture, and practice of Islam.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~22 hours
Unit I — Origins
Arabia before the Prophet · Muhammad's life in outline · The Qur'an as recitation · The first community at Medina
Unit II — Faith and Practice
The Five Pillars · Law and its schools · Sunni and Shia paths
Unit III — Civilization
The translation movement · Sufi devotion · Art, calligraphy, and the mosque
Unit IV — The Modern World
Reform movements · Muslim communities in the West · Common misreadings, corrected
The Buddha's diagnosis of suffering, and the schools that carried his prescription across Asia.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~18 hours
Unit I — The Buddha
Siddhartha's problem · The Four Noble Truths · The Eightfold Path · No-self, stated carefully
Unit II — The Schools
Theravada discipline · Mahayana and the bodhisattva · Zen directness · Tibetan Vajrayana
Unit III — Practice and Presence
Meditation traditions compared · Monastic life · Buddhism's modern travels · Mindfulness and its debates
Arguments for and against God, weighed as arguments — evidence in, verdicts earned.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — Arguments for God
Cosmological arguments · Design before and after Darwin · Ontological arguments · Pascal's wager
Unit II — The Problem of Evil
Logical and evidential versions · Free-will defenses · Skeptical theism and its costs
Unit III — Faith and Reason
Religious experience as evidence · Hume on miracles · The many-faiths problem · Faith without certainty