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Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash In Prothero’s seminal work God Is Not One, he presents a four-part framework to understanding religions: identifying the central problem each religion addresses, the solution it offers, the techniques it employs to move from problem to solution, and the exemplars who embody this path. To gain a more nuanced perspective, we […]

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash British sociologist and anthropologist Edmund Leach studies in part creation myths. We’ve explored his arguments and ideas on creation myths in prior arguments, but never laid out a cohesive—though simplified—framework to analyze creation myths, or myths period, through the Leachian lens. First: note that we will define a

Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov on Unsplash In John Bartkowski’s Beyond Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy, he uses hermeneutic theory to analyze and critique biblical literalism via the Protestant tradition. In this article we’ll explore and summarize his perspective on hermeneutic theory as critiquing biblical literalism. Before reading onward, make sure to click on the following to read

Photo by Ahmed Sherif on Unsplash In Prothero’s God is One, he explores the notion of Islamism, defining Islamism as a “radical form of politicized Islam.” He notes that Islamism means different things among different groups, but the “ism” largely denotes an ideology—that being an anti-Western and anti-American ideology applied to“political ends.” The goal of Islamists

Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash The Mahabharata is a famous, ancient epic and one of the two Sanskrit texts revered in Hinduism. Today, the most adored part of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita, translating to “Sacred Song”, which is a dialogue on the ethics of war. Since the 1800s, the Bhagavad Gita has functioned as

Photo by Zaenal Abidin on Unsplash Ali explores the ways in which the Qur’an was received and displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago through her work The Qur’an at the World’s Fair: Orientalism, Exhibitionism, and the Sacred Text. Critical here is the notion of orientalism — check out my article here on Iwamura’s Virtual Orientalism to

Photo by Michael Myers on Unsplash Buddhism is a missionary religion, meaning like Christianity and Islam, one “converts” to Buddhism. All you have to do is recite the Three Refuges, known as the Three Jewels: I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha. Sangha means community. Dharma means “duty” in

Photo by Lightscape on Unsplash Scholar Stephen Prothero, author of God Is Not One, highlights the differences in doctrine, goals, and practices within the two major branches of Buddhist tradition, Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism Theravada, translating to “The Way of the Elders,” is the oldest form of Buddhism. It’s prevalent in countries like Sri

Photo by Julie Ricard on Unsplash In Buddhism, the problem is suffering (dukkha), and the solution is nirvana. Nirvana literally means “blowing out” and refers to the notion of extinguishing, or eliminating, suffering. The technique for achieving nirvana is the Noble Eightfold path, which is derived from the Four Noble Truths. It touches on well-known Buddhist

Photo by Baran Lotfollahi on Unsplash Creation myths are core narratives found across cultures that explain the origins of the universe, the Earth, life, and humanity. These myths are crucial for exploring how different societies and cultures conceptualize the world and their place within it. American philologist David Leeming, throughout his work The World of Myth