Discipulus Institute - Introduction to World Religions 6 Week Course

Spring 2015 - Now Enrolling!

Introduction to World Religions and Interreligious Dialogue
 Mondays, April 6 – May 18, 2014
Cardinal Rigali Center
Dr. Ed Hogan

Cost $25

Buddhists don’t believe in God – we do. Hindus believe in many gods (sort of) and multiple lifetimes – we don’t. Jews believe that Jesus wasn’t even a prophet, while Muslims believe that he was a prophet but not God – we disagree with both.

Is there some middle ground between declaring all these beliefs true and fighting over the differences? How do we listen respectfully to different religious claims – maybe even learn something from them – and make sense of them in the context of our own beliefs? What has the Church taught, and what does she teach today, about other religions? Come and learn how we can approach these differences in honesty and friendship.

Course Description: 

World Religions and Interreligious Dialogue
Mondays, April 6 – May 18, 2014
Cardinal Rigali Center
Dr. Ed Hogan

Course Outline:

1) Introduction to Church Teaching on World Religions. (April 6)

2) Introduction to Hinduism and Hindu-Catholic Dialogue. (April 13&20)

3) Introduction to Buddhism and Buddhist-Catholic Dialogue. (April 27)

4) Introduction to Judaism and Jewish-Catholic Dialogue. (May 4)

5) Introduction to Islam and Muslim-Catholic Dialogue. (May 11&18)

Is there truth for men, truth that is accessible as such for all men and belongs to all men, or are we only ever, in differing symbols, just touching on the mystery that never unveils itself to us? Is it a presumption to talk about the truth of faith, or is it a duty?…It [becomes] steadily more clear that the whole area of encounters, of dialogue, and likewise of mission leads us inevitably to the question concerning truth: there is no way around it, however unmodern it may seem to be.-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, pp. 57, 113.