Judaism, Christianity, Religious Studies, and Mysticism

Judaism, Christianity, Religious Studies, Mysticism

Teaching About Religions There is now consensus agreement in the United States that public, taxpayer funded schools should be educating students about religions. See this article by Susan Douglass --in the journal The World in the Classroom (60:2) 2002-- which discusses how teachers (in the secular environment of the United States) can teach ABOUT religions and how to understand them, without crossing the line that separates church and state and without entering into the parochial domain of teaching students to profess and practice religions.

Table of Contents

Judaism
Christianity
Comparative Religions
Religious Studies
Mysticism

Judaism

Search the Bible (both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament; or search by individual book) using the Revised Standard Edition. (Link fixed, 5/1/98)

Search the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) This translation is especially formatted for the Web and contains linked commentaries. This site is run by the World ORT Union. (Fixed, 12 Dec. 1998 and August 20, 2002). To search in English, check the box to the left of the word "Translation."

Encyclopaedia Britannica: Judaism a comprehensive article covering Jewish history and beliefs, written by a number of scholars of Judaism. (Link fixed August 20, 2002, but only accessible to subscribers or at a library, such as UGA, that has a subscription.)

Judaism 101: An On-line Encyclopedia of Judaism "covering Jewish beliefs, people, places, things, language, scripture, holidays, practices and customs." This site, compiled by Tracey Rich, a traditional observant Jew (and graduate of UGA Law School), provides "basic, general information about Judaism, written from a traditional perspective in plain English."

Documents of Jewish Belief (link fixed 18 August 2005) Excellent on-line texts of Judaism collected by A. Engler Anderson. (Offline 20 August 2002.)

Texts of Judaism, including Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Talmud, Aggadic literature (Ginzberg's massive classic Legends of the Jews), and others.

The Dead Sea Scrolls is a reliable scholarly site connected with an exhibit of the scrolls at the U.S. Library of Congress.

Judaic Studies, a comprehensive academic site compiled by Professor Mahlon Smith at Rutgers University and providing a gateway to major links for general resources for the study of Judaism, Hebrew Bible, Judean Commonwealth, Tannaitic Period, Talmud, Jewish Diaspora, Jewish Mysticism (Kabbalah), and Modern Judaism. (Link fixed July 15, 2000.)

The Judaism and Jewish Resources Page is a comprehensive mega-page for Judaism.

Glossary of Jewish Terminololgy, from Tracey Rich's Judaism 101, mentioned above. (Link fixed July 15, 2000.)

Olam Ha-Ba: The Afterlife in Judaism This article on Jewish eschatology answers most questions that are generally asked about Jewish views of the Hereafter and Salvation.

Jewish Psychology: The soul and its levels by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.

Maimonides: Prayer, Worship, and Mysticism, written by Prof. David Blumenthal of Emory University, is the title of an article on the man who is generally acknowledged to be the greatest Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages.

Philosophic Mysticism: The Ultimate Goal of Medieval Judaism written by Prof. David Blumenthal, deals with the mysticism of Maimonides and highlights the importance of spiritual experience.

Who is Battering Whom? written by Prof. David Blumenthal, sketches out a post-holocaust Jewish theology centered on the necessity for Jews to be distrustful of God and to have a theology of sustained suspicion.

Biblical Resources, covering both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and compiled by the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (ARIL), which also publishes the scholarly journal Cross Currents.

Internet Resources for the Study of Judaism and Christianity, compiled at the University of Pennsylvania. (Link fixed, 20 August 2002.)

Christianity

Bible Study Tools In order to limit your search to the New Testament (NT), instead of "Whole Bible" option, click on the arrow to the right of "Whole Bible" and choose NT. This site also contains useful links to Bible concordances, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and lexicons among other things.

Synoptic Gospel Primer Stunningly well-done site by Professor Mahlon Smith of Rutgers that clearly describes both the problem of the differing accounts of Jesus found in the Gospels as well as the solutions--throughout history and today-- to understanding this problem. (Fixed, July 12, 2000.)

A Catholic Guide to Biblical Interpretation (link fixed 18 August 2005): Exploring the Many Worlds of Scripture with Faith, Reason and Praxis, by Dr. John Gresham of Fontbonne University, Paul VI Institute and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. This is a remarkable website covering in a concise yet substantial manner the spectrum of the major facets of Biblical interpretation. This should be essential reading material for students of religion.

Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts An important step in interpreting a text is establishing the best possible reconstruction of the original (if the original is no longer extant). This often requires painstaking research involving the word by word comparison of multiple manuscripts. This website, constructed by Timothy W. Seid, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Distributed Learning, Earlham School of Religion (Indiana), provides an excellent discussion of the scholarship involved in working with ancient manuscripts, although the examples given are from New Testament scholarship. It includes a useful glossary.

Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christianity is a comprehensive article written by a number of scholars and dealing with the history of Christianity and its doctrines. (Link fixed August 20, 2002, but only accessible to subscribers or at a library, such as UGA, that has a subscription.)

The Christian Tradition A comprehensive index of resources for the study of Christianity compiled and updated by Professor Mahlon Smith of Rutgers.

The Fathers of the Church consists of an alphabetically organized list of web pages containing both numerous online texts written by the Church Fathers as well as their biographies (taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia).

A Hypertext Encyclopedia of Early Church History, The Ecole Initiative (link fixed 18 August 2005), compiled at the University of Evansville.

Early Church Documents (link fixed 18 August 2005) These on-line early Christian classics have also been compiled by the Ecole Initiative.

Guide to Early Church Documents, developed by the Institute for Christian Leadership (ICL) (Offline as of July 13, 2000 but online on August 20, 2002.)

Christian Theology Links, organized according to tradition by Professor Bryan Stone of the Boston University School of Theology.

The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia has many on-line articles.

Christian Classics Ethereal Library: Classic Christian books in electronic format, for on-line reading; developed at Wheaton College.

Christian Resources, links compiled by the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (ARIL).

APS Guide to Resources in Theology (link fixed 18 August 2005) covers Christian theology and has sections devoted to Anglican, Catholic, Ecumenical, Evangelical, Orthodox, Protestant, and textual resources, and more. This list of annotated links is housed at the website of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Toronto.

Church History and Historical Theology Containing sections dealing with Patristic Theology, Church History until 1200 AD, Church History from 1200-1600, Mystical Theology in the Christian East, and various other links; this page was compiled by librarians at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University.

Spirituality Resources is largely a concisely described list of on-line linked primary texts in Christian spirituality, although a few other Western traditions are included. The source of this page is the library at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University. (Fixed July 13, 2000.)

Images Depicting Biblical Themes and Figures and Later Christians of Significance (link fixed 18 August 2005) This list of linked images was compiled by the Ecole Initiative.

Christian Icons, written by an anonymous nun, consists of an article on three linked pages in which the philosophy of icon painting and the role of icons in Christianity is elucidated. It includes a brief glossary of the "graphic language" displayed in icons.

A Christian Way to Transformation, by M. Basil Pennington, Trappist Monk, currently the Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. Originally this article was published in Spirituality Today, Fall 1983, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 220-229.

Comparative Religions

World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts This on-line book illustrates the thematic unity of the world's religions. (Back on-line 3/8/98)

Mircea Eliade's From Primitives to Zen a hypertext version of this major work of comparative religion, consists of thematically arranged passsages from traditional religious texts. Eliade, formerly professor of Religion at the University of Chicago, was one of the most important figures in the field of the comparative study of religion.

World Religions Photo Library courtesy of Christine Osborne in the UK.

Religious Studies

The Need for Paradigms and Models, excerpted from Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.

Modernity is the title of an article in the Canadian Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. The article contains scholarly discussions of both Modernity in general as well as the Mennonites and their relationship to Modernity.

"Tradition," focusing on the relationship between "tradition" and modernity, is one of the Reith Lectures, given in 1999 by Anthony Giddens, the director of the London School of Economics. This is a pdf file, which can be read by Adobe Acrobat.

Definition of Modernity is a brief definition by Anthony Giddens.

Clifford Geertz on Modernity (link fixed 18 August 2005) For a number of reasons, among them being modernity's general conflict with religion, students of religion must attempt to understand modernity. This excerpt from an article by Geertz, one of the most prominent anthropologists, can be a starting point for further inquiry.

American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the main academic organization for scholars in Religious Studies. (Link fixed, October 27, 2002)

Information on the Annual Meeting of the AAR for the year 2004. The 2004 annual meeting will take place November 20-23, in San Antonio, TX. (Link fixed, January 24, 2004)

AAR Call for Papers, for the year 2004 annual meeting. (The deadline is March 1, 2004.) (Link fixed, January 24, 2004)

Program of the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2003. The 2004 program book will not be ready until as least a few months after the deadline for the call to papers. (Link fixed, January 24, 2004).

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR)

Gene Thursby's Religious Studies Page Professor Thursby, of the University of Florida, has developed this extensive and well-designed web site that is particularly useful as a gateway to other informative sites in Religious Studies.

Virtual Religion Index of Professor Mahlon Smith at Rutgers University is another high-quality comprehensive site of links that have been organized and chosen on the basis of their usefulness to students of Religion. (Fixed, December 20, 2000)

Overview of World Religions when completed it will contain surveys of the major religions and their sects. As of November 9, 2001, however, it is not complete. This is a project of St. Martin's College (UK).

Finding God in Cyberspace (link fixed 18 August 2005) of John Gresham, professor and librarian at Franciscan University.

Academic Information on Religious Studies and Comparative Religion, compiled by Mike Madin, a librarian at the University of Washington. This is now the comprehensive Religion site for Academic Info, a premier umbrella site for academic and scholarly information on the Web.

Religion and Theology Resources (link fixed 18 August 2005) describes some of the best web resources for the study of Religion. This link, on the home page of the Humbul Humanities Hub (which may be the premier Humanities computing guide in the UK), is an extract from the book CTI Textual Studies Guide to Digital Resources for the Humanities (Oxford: Humanities Computing Unit, 2000).

Religious Studies Page--University of California, Santa Barbara (link fixed 18 August 2005)

World Lecture Hall: Religious Studies (link fixed 18 August 2005) contains excellent links to lecture notes and on-line classes in the field of Religious Studies.

Syllabi for the Teaching of Courses in Religious Studies (link fixed 18 August 2005) Organized by subject and compiled under the auspices of the American Academy of Religion.

Internet Resources for Teaching Religion (link fixed 18 August 2005) Compiled under the auspices of the American Academy of Religion.

Association of Peer-Reviewed Electronic Journals in Religion Contains a useful list of online peer-reviewed journals in a variety of areas pertinent to the study of religion.

is a comprehensive website for the study and discussion of the world's belief systems.

Religions of the World and Ecology (link fixed 18 August 2005), developed at the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions, includes an essay on religion and the crisis in world ecology titled The Nature of the Environmental Crisis (link fixed 18 August 2005) by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis (link fixed 18 August 2005), is Lynn White, Jr.'s famous indictment of Christianity for its role in shaping our negative attitudes towards nature.

Psychology of Religion Pages, (link fixed, Nov. 30, 2000) compiled by Prof. Michael Nielsen of Georgia Southern University, is a comprehensive site consisting of a number of pages on topics such as "Methods of Research in Psychology of Religion," "William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience," "The Future of the field of 'Psychology of Religion'," "Resources in Psychology of Religion," "Religion and Mental Health," and "Links to Related Sites."

Heidegger's Ontological Hermeneutics, from Hermeneutics: From Textual Explication to Computer Understanding? by John C. Mallery, Roger Hurwitz, and Gavan Duffy, published in The Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, Stuart C. Shapiro, editor. In this selection, the authors discuss Heidegger's understanding of the "hermeneutic circle."

UGA Dept. of Religion Home Page Here at the University of Georgia, our department offers courses in the major religions of the world and programs of study leading to a BA or MA degree in Religion.

Mysticism

Mysticism Resources, compiled by Prof. Gene Thursby of the University of Florida, contains links to many of the world's mystical traditions as well as a variety of tools for scholars.

Gateway to Mysticism in World Religions The author of this site, Deb Platt, is a Christian woman whose purpose in developing her site is to foster mutual respect and religious tolerance, as well as to illustrate the unity in the diversity of the world's religions.

Spiritual Life and the Survival of Christianity: Reflections at the End of the Millenium, from the journal Cross Currents and written by the highly regarded scholar Louis Dupre, a Christian Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.

What Does Mysticism Have To Teach Us About Consciousness? a paper by Professor Robert Forman, an important American scholar in the study of mysticism.

Paramaartha and Modern Constructivists on Mysticism, subtitled Epistemological Monomorphism Versus Duomorphism In this article from the journal Philosophy East and West, Professor Robert Forman discusses one of the most significant and hotly debated issues in the study of mysticism, the claim of mystics that their mystical experiences go beyond simply being human constructs.

The Sefirot: Kabbalistic Archetypes of Mind and Creation by Sanford L. Drob, Ph.D., the head forensic psychologist and Director of Psychological Assessment at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In the view of Jewish mystics, the sefirot "are the archetypes through which God has structured both the cosmos and the human mind."

The Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology (link fixed 18 August 2005), chapter 9 from Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul, sketches out the historical process of the Western intellectual reduction of the "soul" or "psyche" to "matter" and then advances a solution to the problem of our understanding of the soul.

The Nature of Archetypes,by Prof. Charles T. Davis of Appalachian State University, discusses Jung's view of these forces that shape both matter and mind.

The Ambiguity of Matter in Cross Currents (Spring 1998, vol. 48, issue 1) by Huston Smith -- former professor of religion at MIT, Syracuse, and the University of California, Berkeley -- who is one of the foremost scholars of comparative religion.

Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity is a new scholarly journal devoted to clarifying perennial wisdom in the context of modernity.

Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies By tradition the editors mean "realities of ultimately sacred origin" that provide people with four things: sources of true knowledge, meaning for life, principles for moral action, and artistic inspiration. Published by the Foundation for Traditional Studies, the president of which is Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

One Spirit Project an extensive web-directory of sites dealing primarily with "New Age" spirituality and personal growth.

Narratives of Followers of Various Non-mainstream Spiritual Leaders and Paths

In the Magical Soup: Meditations on Twenty Years of Cult Living written by former cult member Kamlapadi Kaur Khalsa on her experience within Yogi Bhajan's 3HO (Healthy, Happy, and Holy Organization), in which Kundalini Yoga is practiced and the Sikh Dharma is followed. The author goes beyond mere criticism and shares the wisdom that she learned from her experience.

A Monkey's Tale On the Divine Person: Leelas in Praise of Beloved Da, Avatara Adi Da Love-Ananda, Samrajm Eleutherios, The Bright Ruchira Buddha written by Frank Marrero, a devotee of Da, aka Da Free John, this narrative expresses the ecstatic rapture and love that envelops many devotees of even controversial and scandal-plagued spiritual teachers.