Thinking About Religion and Violence
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Narrated by:
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Professor Jason C. Bivins PhD
About this listen
In a world where violence in the name of religion can impact so many other people's lives, it's critical to understand the intersection between religion and violence. What's required is not to see religion as inherently violent but to recognize that the violence associated with religious groups and communities is worth exploring and interrogating.
In these 24 lectures, embark on a global, multidisciplinary investigation of religious violence. Delivered with honesty and sensitivity to the diversity of spiritual beliefs, these lectures examine the roots of this phenomenon and guide you toward more informed ways of thinking about it.
You'll consider how faiths like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism view concepts like human sacrifice, martyrdom, and penitence; the ways religious violence can be directed toward specific races and genders; concepts like heresy, witch hunting, and demonology; and more. You'll probe complex ideas and concepts that will help you fashion your own interpretations, such as "religion", "Other-ing", and "cult." And you'll burrow deep into both current issues relating to religious violence - as well as their historical and conceptual sources.
Professor Bivins doesn't take a clinical or pessimistic approach to the material. Rather, he's an engaging on-screen presence with a fierce open-mindedness to the varieties of religious experience. He's also optimistic about what we can learn from a comprehensive study of religious violence. And at the individual level, it starts with approaching the topic in a way that's immersive, insightful, thorough, and important for our times.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
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My Big TOE: Awakening, written by a nuclear physicist in the language of contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal. The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.
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What a Trip (but to where?)
- By Michael on 11-26-13
By: Thomas Campbell
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Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader
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- Narrated by: Barry J. Peterson
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Neville Goddard: The Complete Reader, Includes all 10 of Neville Goddard's Spiritual Classics: At Your Command, Awakened Imagination & the Search, Feeling is the Secret, Freedom For All, Out of This World, Prayer, The Art of Believing, Seedtime and Harvest, The Law and The Promise, The Power of Awareness, and Your Faith Is Your Fortune. If you are familiar with the great American mystic, this will be a goldmine of wisdom in one book. If you are new to his work, you are in for a spiritual journey.
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Hidden Gem
- By TrauntsiePants on 05-22-18
By: Neville Goddard
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The Pagan World
- Ancient Religions Before Christianity
- By: Hans-Friedrich Mueller, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Hans-Friedrich Mueller
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
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In The Pagan World: Ancient Religions Before Christianity, you will meet the fascinating, ancient polytheistic peoples of the Mediterranean and beyond, their many gods and goddesses, and their public and private worship practices, as you come to appreciate the foundational role religion played in their lives. Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, makes this ancient world come alive in 24 lectures with captivating stories of intrigue, artifacts, illustrations, and detailed descriptions from primary sources of intriguing personalities.
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The Pagan World
- By arnold e andersen md Dr Andersen on 03-28-20
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Super Attractor
- Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
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Ready to turn what you want into the life that you live? The number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Universe Has Your Back shows you how. In Super Attractor, Gabrielle Bernstein lays out the essential methods for manifesting a life beyond your wildest dreams. This book is a journey of remembering where your true power lies. You'll learn how to co-create the life you want. You'll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don't have to work so hard to get what you want.
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Not a huge fan
- By Pamela H on 09-30-19
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Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
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The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
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Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
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Good, but problematic in parts.
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great survey of Ancient Creation stories
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Little mistakes here and there
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The science fiction genre has become increasingly influential in mainstream popular culture, evolving into one of the most engaging storytelling tools we use to think about technology and consider the shape of the future. Along the way, it has also become one of the major lenses we use to explore important philosophical questions. The origins of science fiction are most often thought to trace to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, a story born from a night of spooky tale-telling by the fireside that explores scientific, moral, and ethical questions that were of great concern in the 19th century - and that continue to resonate today.
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For thousands of years, Homer's ancient epic poem the
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Often, much of what is misunderstood about Islam is the result of a lack of information - and some dangerous and prolific myths. To combat these myths and better understand the complex Islamic tradition, Dr. Martyn Oliver, a senior professorial lecturer at American University, presents 12 in-depth lectures to provide you with a multifaceted approach to Muhammad, Islam, and the revelation known today as the Qur'an.
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A Fine Survey
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The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
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What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
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Basically a collection of sermons
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Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
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Jazz is a uniquely American art form, one of America's great contributions to not only musical culture, but world culture, with each generation of musicians applying new levels of creativity that take the music in unexpected directions that defy definition, category, and stagnation. Now you can learn the basics and history of this intoxicating genre in an eight-lecture series that is as free-flowing and original as the art form itself.
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A Disappointingly Distorted, Myopic View Of Jazz
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No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
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Same Material Different Title
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What listeners say about Thinking About Religion and Violence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- BROWSER OF MUSIC
- 08-25-22
Huh
Nice book for adults and family ages and adults are not looking at the same as a family
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- Carlos
- 02-15-23
Amazing
A great truth journey into history. I am looking forward to more of his lectures.
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- Betsy Vixie
- 06-08-22
Violence in Islam
I would like to address some of the criticism I’ve seen in these reviews. In particular, the criticism that the speaker doesn’t talk enough about or harshly enough about violence in Islam. This seems to me to be not at all accurate. In fact, the speaker spends just as much time talking about Islam as they do about Christianity. They do not make excuses for Islamic violence. However, they do try to combat the misconception that Islam is inherently more violent that other religions, positing that Islam has the capacity for both peace and violence, just like every other religion they discuss throughout the lectures. Overall this was a very interesting and informative lecture series.
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1 person found this helpful
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- pinkie taylo
- 11-10-18
Intriguing
I loved this course, learned so much! I plan on listening again soon & sharing with my friends.
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5 people found this helpful
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- steve
- 09-06-21
I Gave it A Five With Reservations
I love Great Courses and enjoyed this one also.
Reservations:
1. Skip chapter 19…author talks about Islam and leaves out quite a bit.
2. The professor considers himself privileged male …chapter 24… discounting the decisions he made to better himself…decisions everyone can make in America.
3. Lastly, the professor never discusses what abrogation means in Islam
Other than that, well worth your time
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3 people found this helpful
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- Rebecca T.
- 01-15-20
Fantastic Course But Possible Bias
I rate this course 5/5 on all counts despite what I'm about to say. Religion, history, and culture are very nearly impossible to discuss in an entirely unbiased way (though the bias may be unintended). Frankly whether one interprets something as biased depends heavily on one's own beliefs and what one holds near and dear.
This is not a course on Islam and Violence. If you are looking for an in depth analysis of contemporary Islamic terror organizations or a deep look into religiously motivated violence in the 21st century Middle East, this course will disappoint you. It does mention violence related to Islam and Islamic terror groups, but it is contained to a lecture or two and a mention here and there. I personally enjoyed the broad scope of these lectures specifically because they did not spend too much time dissecting the current situation in the Middle East. I was looking for a broad overview that included many different religions and time periods and I got it.
A few points in the lectures, such as when Gush Emunim and the Kach Party were lumped together with Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda as some of the more influential terror groups in modern times, did leave me with raised eyebrows. My first thoughts were that, while it is important to point out that there have been terror groups in modern times from non-Islamic traditions, comparing GE and the Kach Party to Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda in scale seemed a bit much. However, I'm guessing this is an area where my opinion as a 20-something American might differ from that of a 60-something Palestinian. Regardless of whether my raised eyebrows were due to my own biases or another reason, the points Prof. Bivins brought up in relation to the Jewish terrorist organizations were interesting and relevant, and I learned from it.
Overall, I felt these lectures were informative, thought-provoking, and fairly unbiased given the sensitive nature of the topics discussed.
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10 people found this helpful
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- L
- 02-02-20
Intro. level wisdom
Dr. Bivins calmly and carefully threads together many types of “violence” and religious bases for them across centuries and spanning the globe. If there is a particular conflict or type of violence you want to delve into this won’t be the course for you, but I appreciated the broad swath of conflicts covered and the overarching message that attempting to better understand ourselves and each other can only help us move forward.
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2 people found this helpful
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- ancientreader
- 11-22-21
smart and fair-minded
A really stellar course -- lots of information that was new to me even though this is a subject I've done some reading in, and a thorough and fair-minded analysis. Bivins is a most engaging prof whom I'd love to invite to dinner with some of my brainier friends, and then sit back while they all talk.
I pretty much binge-listened.
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- Mark
- 04-28-18
A brave and unflinching set of lectures
Professor Bivins offers a calm, well-informed and thoroughly rational analysis of the nexus between religion and violence. Unlike some other Great Courses lecturers, he engages his audience in a mature and open discussion of this sensitive, politically freighted topic. Most important of all, Professor Bivins provides a compelling moral rationale for the course: we cannot address the problem of religiously inspired violence unless we first understand its antecedents and the mindset of the actors involved. Highly recommended.
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49 people found this helpful
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- P. K. Bellville
- 07-26-19
Heaven help us!
Bivins does a good job staying dispassionate and disconnected from this minefield of a topic. He stays fair, evenhanded and non critical. He stresses egalitarianism but Islam was a very hard sell. I disagreed with a couple scripture interpretations but consensus is nearly impossible anyway. Overall a great job.
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4 people found this helpful