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The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience
Professor Andrew Newberg
The religious impulse is so powerfully pervasive that neuroscience has posed a provocative question: Are our brains wired to worship? In The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience, award-winning scholar and practicing neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Newberg, Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, offers you 24 riveting lectures that explore the new and exciting field of neurotheology, a discipline aimed at understanding the connections between our brains and different kinds of religious phenomena. Using an academic, experimental approach into what he calls “objective measures of spirituality,” Dr. Newberg attempts to explain what others have previously only guessed at: the neuroscientific basis for why religion and spirituality have played such a prominent role in human life.
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Save Up To $185
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New Testament
Professor Bart D. Ehrman
Whether you consider it a book of faith or a cultural artifact, the New Testament is among the most significant writings that the world has ever known. This course sheds the light of purely historical research on the New Testament—its form, the methods of its composition, its authors and their original audiences, and the larger historical context. Mindful of the limitations imposed by the available historical evidence and methods, Professor Bart. D. Ehrman brings impressive expertise to the task of reconstructing the life of Jesus and the early Christian community.
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Save Up To $185
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Old Testament
Professor Amy-Jill Levine
The Old Testament, or Tanakh, was written in ancient Israel over 1,000 years by many authors. What can this book teach us about the ancient Israelites? What does our faith find in new scholarly understanding? These lectures by scripture expert Professor Amy-Jill Levine introduce you to the history, religion, and literature of ancient Israel as preserved in the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible. Professor Levine brings biblical characters and passages to life and vividly reveals the magnificent artistry suffusing the Old Testament.
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Save Up To $275
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The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation
Professor Luke Timothy Johnson
Christianity is the largest and most global religious tradition in history. For nearly 2,000 years, the Christian faith has remained at or near the center of Western moral debate and conceptions of human identity, just action, and ultimate meaning. It has both shaped history and responded to history, showing an extraordinary adaptability within greatly differing cultures. Its practice and influence appear in every land and every language, and one-third of humanity now affiliates in some way with Christianity. Now, in 36 enthralling lectures, The History of Christianity: From the Disciples to the Dawn of the Reformation tells the phenomenal story of Christianity’s first 1,500 years, in all its remarkable diversity and complex dimension.
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Great World Religions, 2nd Edition: All 5 Religions (Set)
Various Professors
Join five top college professors in this all-new version of Great World Religions, an authoritative, informative, and up-to-date survey of the history and nature of the world's five major faiths: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. How are these religions alike? How are they dissimilar? What issues are most meaningful to each religion's adherents? This 60-lecture tour does more than just enhance your knowledge of these major faiths; it enables you to view religion in its totality as a unified, integrated human activity.
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Save Up To $185
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Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know
Professor Mark Berkson
When does the Jewish Sabbath begin? Who are Vishnu and Shiva? What are Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths? What are the Five Pillars of Islam? Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know is your chance to experience the breadth and depth of the world’s religions from all angles—historical, theological, and cultural. Over the course of 24 engaging lectures, award-winning Professor Mark Berkson of Hamline University takes you on a tour of our world and its religious cultures. Your journey will introduce you to the beliefs, symbols, and practices of other traditions, and it will provide you with new insights into your own.
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Holy Land Revealed
Professor Jodi Magness
Comb through the rubble of an ancient citadel in the City of David, the contents of rock-cut tombs in the Kidron Valley, correspondence from caves in the Judaean desert, and other remains from one of the most important regions in the history of civilization. Delivered by archaeologist and award-winning Professor Jodi Magness, The Holy Land Revealed helps you relive and encounter life in the ancient Holy Land through the lens of archaeology. These 36 lectures are your chance to get up close and personal with ruins, artifacts, murals, documents, and other long-buried objects that will take you deep beneath the pages of the Bible.
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Save Up To $185
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Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History
Professor Craig R. Koester
What are we to make of the book of Revelation? The Apocalypse: Controversies and Meaning in Western History, by scholar and Professor Craig R. Koester, is your guide to this extraordinary work and its impact on our civilization. These 24 thought-provoking and enlightening lectures are divided into three parts: the historical and intellectual background of the Apocalypse; a close reading of the book of Revelation, focusing on the meaning of its captivating and haunting images; and the wide-ranging legacy of its content on both Christian and Western history.
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Why Evil Exists
Professor Charles Mathewes
Why do humans do evil? Is evil a spiritual or a cosmic problem? Why, in the end, does evil exist? Discover the answer to these and other provocative questions in Why Evil Exists. Award-winning Professor Charles Mathewes offers you a richly rewarding encounter with dynamic inquiries into Western civilization's greatest thinking on this critical subject. Covering nearly 5,000 years of human history and invoking the perspectives of many of the West's most brilliant minds, these 36 lectures probe intimately into how human beings have conceived of evil, how they've grappled with it, and how they've worked to oppose it.
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Save Up To $185
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Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication
Professor Bart D. Ehrman
In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. In fact, many Christians held beliefs that today would be considered bizarre, including the belief that Christ's death and resurrection had nothing to do with salvation. What did these "other" Scriptures say? Do they exist today? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist? These are just a few of the many provocative questions you explore in Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles over Authentication.
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Save Up To $185
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The Cathedral
Professor William R. Cook
Tour the world's most captivating cathedrals from the comfort of your own home with these 24 lavishly illustrated lectures by Professor William R. Cook. An exciting, immersive, and multidimensional learning experience, The Cathedral brings you closer to cathedrals like Notre Dame in Paris and those in Amiens, Chartres, and Canterbury than any on-site tour could hope to do. With high-definition 3-D modeling and imagery, you'll travel around and inside the world's great Gothic cathedrals from fascinating new perspectives.
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Save Up To $160
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History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon
Professor Bart D. Ehrman
The History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon offers you a fast-moving yet thorough introduction to key issues in the development of the New Testament. These include: its different kinds of books, the conditions in which they were composed, what they teach, who actually wrote them, and—perhaps most important of all—why and how some books and not others became part of the canon of scripture that would define Christianity for all time. With their scholarly approach, these insightful lectures provide a deeper understanding of the New Testament for both Christians and non-Christians alike.
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Save Up To $185
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Dead Sea Scrolls
Professor Gary A. Rendsburg
Get a comprehensive, 24-lecture introduction to the unique series of archaeological documents that have irrevocably altered how we look at and understand the foundations of faith and religious practice. In The Dead Sea Scrolls, Professor Gary A. Rendsburg—a dedicated Dead Sea Scrolls scholar who has spent decades immersed in the study of this amazing find—tells you what the scrolls are and what they contain, and describes the intriguing story of how their unparalleled insights into religious and ancient history came into focus.
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Save Up To $275
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History of Christian Theology
Professor Phillip Cary
Who was Jesus? Did his promise of salvation apply to everyone or only a few? How could one participate in that promise? Questions like these have long been at the heart of Christianity and have led to debate and division. In The History of Christian Theology, investigate the many responses that Christian believers, scholars, and theologians have developed over more than 2,000 years. Throughout these 36 illuminating lectures, award-winning Professor Phillip Cary reveals the power of Christianity as both an intellectual discipline and a spiritual path. Enrich your understanding of this powerful religious tradition and gain thought-provoking insights into teachings that forever changed the world.
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The Catholic Church: A History
Professor William R. Cook
Explore the vast and fascinating history of one of the most influential institutions in the world with The Catholic Church: A History. In 36 informative and engaging lectures, follow the development of this powerful religious force throughout the centuries and witness its ability to move armies, inspire saints, and shape the lives and spirits of its more than 1 billion members. With noted historian and Professor William R. Cook, you'll quickly realize why no understanding of Western civilization is complete without an understanding of the Catholic Church.
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