How do the major religions answer unanswerable questions? What can we gain from their answers? Why are we here? Will we ever discover the source of the mystery? Each of these questions raises countless more, and these eight eye-opening lectures are an ideal starting point for gaining some progress in considering them.

Professor Oden's lectures approach religious belief and ritual as possible answers to these most difficult and enduring questions, which have occupied humanity from the beginning. They underscore both the unity and the diversity of religious approaches to life in a sweeping conceptual grasp. And they treat the study of religion as both a matter of faith and as an appropriate subject of intellectual and academic pursuit. Throughout these lectures, you'll examine the four traditional views of religion; ponder the best ways to understand and compare religious beliefs; investigate the problem of the existence of evil in a world created by a benevolent deity; compare the birth narratives of several important religious figures including Moses, Jesus, and the Buddha; probe the secrets of rituals and their ramifications for the religious communities of sect and church; see how the United States is the perfect case study for learning about the religious nature of a particular society; and much more.