This course was originally held in the spring of 2023, and was the fourth in a series of five that were part of our '22 - '23 certificate program.
Introducing World Religions through a Process-Relational Lens
Over the course of six sessions, students will be introduced to several world religions (or ways of thinking and living) through a lens of process-relational thought. Each week will be devoted to a different tradition with several visiting teachers bringing their own expertise to the discussion.
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Course Description
We live in a world marked by great diversity, and if humans are to live peaceably together, we must seek to understand each other. In this course, participants will explore various world religions, as well as indigenous/traditional ways of thinking and living, through a lens of process and relational thought. Over the course of six sessions, we will discuss Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indigenous/Traditional Ways.
As we approach each tradition, we will seek to encounter its commitments and matters of ultimate concern alongside its primary practices, exploring how it may be situated within process and relational metaphysics. Through this lens, we might ask how each tradition fosters zest and enjoyment, nourishes its adherents’ spiritual and ethical lives, and knits communities together, with an eye on each tradition’s view of the proper relationship between the transpersonal or sacred and humans, as well as between humans and the earth.
“Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of those principles requires continual development.”
–Alfred North Whitehead
Course Outline
- Session 1: Course Introduction & Christianity: with Sheri D. Kling, PhD
- Session 2: Judaism: with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, PhD
- Session 3: Islam: Farhan Shah, PhD
- Session 4: Hinduism: with Jeffery Long, PhD
- Session 5: Buddhism: with Steve Odin, PhD
- Session 6: Indigenous/Traditional Ways: with Chris Daniels, PhD
About the Instructors
Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is the director of Process & Faith (Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology) and the John Cobb Legacy Fund. She is also a writer, teacher, and constructive theologian who integrates the process-relational philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung for psycho-spiritual wholeness. She is a faculty member of the Haden Institute, the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation, and lives in Bradenton, FL.
Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University. A member of the Philosophy Department, he is particularly interested in theology, ethics, and the integration of science and religion. He mentors Camp Ramah in California in Ojai and Ramah of Northern California in the Bay Area. He is also dean of the Zacharias Frankel College in Potsdam, Germany, ordaining Conservative rabbis for Europe. A frequent contributor for the Huffington Post and for the Times of Israel, and a public figure Facebook page with over 53,000 likes, he is the author of 12 books and over 250 articles, most recently Renewing the Process of Creation: A Jewish Integration of Science and Spirit.
Farhan Shah, Ph.D., is a doctoral fellow of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a scholar of Islam, Muhammad Iqbal, and process philosophy. His work examines Iqbal`s reconstructed version of Islam, especially related to his concept of khalifa as God's co-worker in the spatio-temporal order and takes an intra-Islamic and interreligious approach to what he calls organic humanism.
Jeffery D. Long, Ph.D., is Carl W. Zeigler Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies at Elizabethtown College. He specializes in the religions and philosophies of India. He is the author of several books and numerous articles, as well the editor of the series Explorations in Indic Traditions for Lexington Books. In 2018, he received the Hindu American Foundation’s Dharma Seva Award for his ongoing efforts to promote more accurate and culturally sensitive portrayals of Indic traditions in the American educational system and popular media. He has spoken in numerous venues, both national and international, including Princeton University, Yale University, the University of Chicago, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (in India), and has given three talks at the United Nations.
Steve Odin, Ph.D., is a professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Hawaii. His research and teaching areas include Japanese philosophy, East-West comparative philosophy, American philosophy, Whitehead’s process metaphysics, phenomenology, existentialism, environmental ethics, and aesthetics. Among his publications are Process Metaphysics and Hua-Yen Buddhism (1982), The Social Self in Zen and American Pragmatism (1994), Artistic Detachment in Japan and the West: Psychic Distance in Comparative Aesthetics (2001), and Tragic Beauty in Whitehead and Japanese Aesthetics (2016).
Chris Daniels, Ph.D., has spent most of his life in the music business in Canada, but also managed to return to school and be awarded a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary. His focus is on Philosophy of Religion/Diversity of Religions, and in particular the Philosophy/Theology of Alfred North Whitehead. His dissertation, All My Relations: A Process-Indigenous Study in Comparative Ontology, was a comparative analysis between how Indigenous scholars and Elders described their own worldviews and ways-of-knowing with the Process-Relational cosmology of Whitehead. He has taught philosophy of religion and indigenous worldviews/spiritualities in Calgary universities and organized the Indigenous Wisdom track at the Seizing an Alternative conference in 2015. He also contributed a response to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si' in For Our Common Home: Process-Relational Responses to Laudato Si',edited by John Cobb Jr. and Ignacio Castuera, based on Indigenous wisdom.
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Suggested Price
- Lifetime access to session recordings
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- Interact with class members via discussion forums
- * Contribute whatever you feel the course is worth or whatever you can afford to help support this and other programs like it. No one is turned down for lack of funds.
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