Exploring the diverse religious traditions contributing to New Zealand society

TERM 4 COURSES BEGIN THE WEEK STARTING MONDAY 18 OCTOBER 2021

This series provides an in-depth look at the world’s main religious traditions, and goes into much greater detail than the information provided in the introductory Discovering Religious Diversity series. Over an entire Term of eight sessions focused on a single belief tradition, we’ll examine the history and development of each tradition, key figures associated with its founding or development, its sacred texts, contemporary beliefs and practices, and the major festivals and commemorations associated with each. During the final session of each Term, we’ll view a representative film for each tradition that accentuates and highlights the main points discussed during the Term.

Any Term course can be taken independently of the others and at any time and in any order. There are no prerequisites for any of the Religious Diversity courses.

All classes are taught from an objective point of view. These are classes about religion and religious behavior, taught from an anthropological point of view, and are designed for participants to get a greater understanding of the depth and scope of the diversity that exists within the world’s various faith and belief traditions.

The courses offered in this series are:

• RD301: “Understanding Judaism”
• RD302: “Understanding Islam”
• RD303: “Understanding Hinduism”
• RD304: “Understanding Buddhism”
• RD305: “Other ’Isms”

DISTANCE-LEARNING OPTIONS AVAILABLE: In addition to our regular Hamilton in-person classes, we offer ‘Distance Learning’ options for all of our Religious Diversity courses. Distance-learning options have been added for those living outside the Waikato or for those unable to attend our in-person classes in Hamilton. If you are a Distance-Learner you have the option of joining our regular live classroom sessions via Zoom at the regularly scheduled class time, or you can watch a video-recording of the Zoom classroom session at your leisure and learn at your own pace.

For more information on each specific course and the topics covered, please click on course name above, or on the course respective tiles below.