On Teaching About Judaism (Part Two)
As I observed in my previous blog entry, a rather sizable percentage of the American public seems to know surprisingly little about the basics of Judaism. In my own world religions courses, when we take up the study of the Jewish faith, I often find that a fair number of students possess little to n

posted 6:40:00pm Jun. 18, 2013 | read full post »

On Teaching About Judaism (Part One)
One might expect that many if not most Americans would have at least a passing familiarity with the basics of Judaism. After all, about 80% or so of the American public self-identifies as Christian, and Christianity and Judaism are inextricably intertwined. Both are Abrahamic faiths, making them

posted 7:01:16pm Jun. 16, 2013 | read full post »

On Teaching About Buddhism (Part Four)
As I discussed in my previous blog entry, the Buddhist religion maintains that not only is there no eternal Creator God, but also no such thing as an eternal soul. If that is so, many non-Buddhists wonder, then just exactly what reincarnates? The basic Buddhist idea is that the "soul" (or any sor

posted 3:26:28pm Jun. 12, 2013 | read full post »

On Teaching About Buddhism (Part Three)
As I discussed in my previous blog entry, the Buddhist religion often stretches the very limits of what some of my students of comparative religion (and other newcomers to Buddhism) are typically used to regarding as some of the absolutely essential, even defining qualities or characteristics of a "

posted 8:12:19pm Jun. 10, 2013 | read full post »

On Teaching About Buddhism (Part Two)
As I discussed in my previous blog entry, if Hinduism seemed unfamiliar and strange to many of the students in my community college classes who are new to the study of Eastern religions, then Buddhism often seems even stranger, and perhaps in some ways even more challenging. It may even stretch, for

posted 3:18:09pm Jun. 07, 2013 | read full post »