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Lenten Study: Religious Literacy: The Abrahamic Faiths
More than half of the people in the world consider themselves religious. For essentially all of the world's population, religion matters. If we are going to figure out how to communicate in a wider world, we have to have a place to begin. The beginning is literacy. We cannot understand each other unless we understand the meanings of the words from each others perspective.
Yet, many of us do not have a reliable understanding of what a Pentecostal Christian believes or what the word Pentecostal means. Much less, what Abraham signifies to an Orthodox Jew or an observant Sunni Moslem.
Last year, the Lenten study was on what it meant to be an Episcopalian. This year, we would like to further broaden our frame into the world of religious literacy focusing on the Abrahamic faiths. We will spend four Sunday afternoons on four different topics using chapters from Huston Smith's text "The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions" as a jumping off point. (This book is widely available used and new.) Each session will stand independently, however consecutive attendance would be helpful.
I hope that you will join in a 4 session exploration of the broader definitions and understandings of some of the more common variations and practices of the Abrahamic religions.
We will meet from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM on 4 Sundays
• February 25 - Christianity - Roman Catholic and Orthodox (Chapters 1 & 8)
• March 3 - no meeting Presidents' Day weekend
• March 10 - Christianity - Free church Black, Evangelical, Fundamental, & Pentecostal (Chapter 8 continued)
• March 17 - Judaism - Conservative & Reform (Chapter 7)
• March 24 - Islam - Sunni & Shia (Chapter 6)
Questions? Interested? Sign-Up? Contact Dan Hudkins dfhudkins@gmail.com or 207-401-0836.
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