Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity

This course describes why religion is important for understanding and engaging with global challenges. It is offered by the Open University through Future Learn, an e-learning platform.

On this course, participants will gain a broader understanding of how religion not only influences personal behaviours and ethics, but also affects international conflicts and domestic policy decisions. Through the course, learners will be exposed to the concepts of religious literacy and religious diversity, both within different societies and religious traditions themselves. In addition to this, the course is taught using case studies to explore Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and indigenous religious traditions in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Some of the course contents are:

• Importance of religion and religious literacy matters
• Relationships and differences between religion and culture
• Interactions with religious spheres outside one's own