Exploring Ideas in the World’s Religions
Live Session Info
Dates: March 5, 2025 – April 23, 2025
Meeting Times: Wednesdays, 4:00 – 5:30 PM Pacific
Zoom Info: Click on the session links below to access.
Engage key ideas from the world’s religious traditions and interpret them through the lens of Huston Smith’s works and process philosophy using individual thought, curiosity, creativity, and spiritual growth.
Description
Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions, was a renowned scholar who said that “wisdom traditions” had a simple role: to help us behave decently toward one another. He created award-winning documentaries on Hinduism, Sufism, and Tibetan Buddhism and was featured on Bill Moyers’ five-part PBS special “The Wisdom of Faith With Huston Smith.”
In this course, co-sponsored by Process & Faith and the Interfaith Center, we will put Smith’s work in dialogue with process thought. Each week, we will explore core concepts from a major world religion, guided by Smith’s timeless insights. Using Process Philosophy as a framework, we will examine how these traditions offer unique and complementary perspectives on ultimate reality, human purpose, and ethical living. Together, we will reflect on what these ideas mean for our own lives.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for anyone curious about the world’s religions and interested in exploring their insights through a philosophical lens. Whether you are religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or simply seeking deeper understanding, you are welcome.
Format
- Interactive discussions: Encouraging questions, dialogue, and mutual learning.
- Short readings and videos: Selected passages from Huston Smith’s works and supplementary materials on Process Philosophy.
- Reflective exercises: Journaling, meditative prompts, or creative activities to deepen personal engagement.
Outline
- Introduction: Huston Smith and Process Philosophy
- Hinduism: The Many Faces of the Divine
- Buddhism: Impermanence and Interbeing
- Confucianism & Daoism: Harmony in Relationships and Nature
- Judaism: Covenant, Community, and Creativity
- Christianity: Love, Grace, and Transformation
- Islam: Surrender, Unity, and Beauty
- The Mystical Thread & Your Own Path
Course Content
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