LDS Institute Comparative Religions Course

Thursday, April 29, 2010, was Brent's last day teaching Institute for the Winter semester. The comparative religions course, entitled "The Gospel and World Religions: Finding Common Ground," ran for 16 weeks and focused on Islam, Judaism, and "traditional" Christianity.

Optional "enrichment" activities included a tour to the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, a Shabbat service at Central (Reform) Synagogue, a Good Friday service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and a Passover Seder/Last Supper reenactment at the Church's Lincoln Square building, plus movies, treats, the option to participate in the non-LDS tradition of Lent, and an invitation to read a sacred text of another major world religious faith.

Brent thoroughly enjoyed preparing for and teaching this relatively rigorous (by Institute standards) course, which perhaps showed: weekly attendance averaged over 81, with the high being 108. He appreciated being able to use images from his own personal photo collection: the two images shown above were taken in 2008 and 2005, respectively, and show a mosaic of Jesus Christ inside the apse of Rome's St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica and Buddhist Temple figures at dusk near Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) in Bangkok.

Links to course materials may be found on Brent's personal home page.