Welcome back, Sickies

After a delightful time in both Richmond and Kernersville, the sinus-infection-recovering Woodwards have returned to Kentucky. Sarah will go back to work, and I will continue my voluntary unemployment by taking a class entitled, "Major Living World Religions" this coming week from 8-5 each day. Despite the schedule, I'm actually looking forward to the class alot, and the reading has already been quite interesting.

The first book I read for the class is entitled "Guests of the Sheik". It was written in the 60's by a newly married woman whose husband took her to Iraq for over a year while he did sociological research. Elizabeth Farnea recounts her desires and struggles to develop friendships in a rural Iraqi village with the Muslim women, who must walk around town in a full abaya to hide themselves. While the book will tell you very little about life in Iraq today in the midst of war, it is a very interesting account of traditional Muslim culture in an Arab context.
The second book I read was Huston Smith's "The World's Religions." It's an interesting, fair book, which gives a general synopsis of major world religions with a focus on the common person's experience. Smith seems to avoid giving the traditional list of facts, beliefs, and practices - probably most people don't experience religion in this cold, indifferent manner.
The book I'm now reading is quite interesting: "Anthology of World Scriptures" by Robert Van Voorst. If you've ever looking at the first two Surahs of the Qur'an and found yourself completely lost, this book would be quite a help. It gives introductory remarks to understanding the scriptures of various religions, and then guides the reader with selected readings commenting on various teachings, ethics, etc. It's really helpful so far, and I appreciate being able to actually read the text and make some sense of it, rather than just being given an author's summary and interpretation. Still, scriptures are always read and interpreted in a religious community, so if one is wondering what Ahmed down the street believes, reading the Qur'an is only half of the task. Often believers (Christians certainly included) had only a partial knowledge of what's in the scriptures of their religion, and may have many curious interpretations of the things they are familiar with - so every religious dialogue must, in the end, be personal.


Well, for the rest of the week, as time allows, I'd like to post some interesting findings from the readings and the class considering some intersections and divergences between Christianity and these other religions (hopefully Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism). Hopefully you can learn, with me, a bit about how our neighbors on this globe understand themselves, their world, and God. Also, hopefully we will see how these various manners of groping to understand the world and God are all answered in Jesus Christ - the Sufficient Savior of men from every nation, tribe, and tongue.