Introduction to religious beliefs and practices across cultures. It surveys major religions of the world and examines forms of religious beliefs; a variety of gods and supernatural forces; use of myths, rituals, religious ceremonies; shamans, priests, and religious specialists.
Religion is one of the social institutions, and studies show that about 85 % of the world population practice some sort of religious belief (Haviland et al. 2011). This course enhances missional leaders’ knowledge about diverse religious belief systems and thoughts. Learners will also gain techniques and tools that will help them take part in local and international ministry, Christian counseling, and other career opportunities.
Knowledge of the basic nature of diverse belief systems helps missionaries and evangelists to scrutinize belief systems, differentiate them from Christianity, better prepare to deliver the Gospel messages, and provide evidence-based answers to the question people have about the Gospel. Information literacy in world religions also gives learners the opportunity to approach people of different religious backgrounds and contexts, and opens doors for missions.
This course studies Christianity as one of the world religions and Bible as a source of absolute truth.
The main goal of this course is to teach local mission practitioners about various religious beliefs and prepare them for knowledge-based mission.
The course examines world religious beliefs in diverse sociocultural contexts.
Religious beliefs and practices will be evaluated across cultures and in the contexts of people from diverse socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
The course will provide learners with techniques that enable them to put their knowledge into practice in their respective communities. Ethnographic case studies and visual learning medias (videos) will be used to make learning more practice oriented.
The course encourages learners to put their knowledge into practice and gain experience. We will use success stories of experienced missional leaders as part of learning techniques to inspire students to use their knowledge.
