Wednesdays, October 22 – November 19, 5 – 6:30 p.m. at the Senior Center

— from Maura O’Neill —

MauraONeillIn today’s world, religion gets much of the blame for violence and strife affecting us all. This course is designed to get to the heart of the beliefs and practices of five of the world’s religions in order to discern the truth of such claims. The traditions that will be discussed are three of the monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and two of the Asian religions, Hinduism and Buddhism. Besides a brief summary of each belief system, there will be special attention paid to the tradition’s view towards war and violence as derived from its image of God and from its sacred texts.

Maura is a retired professor of philosophy and religious studies from Chaffey College in Southern California. She has her Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA and is the author of two books on women in world religions, Women Speaking, Women Listening and Mending a Torn World both published by Orbis Books.