Western and African cultures collide in Haiti resulting in religious conflict between Christianity and Voodoo. Despite centuries of vigilant opposition from the Christian Church, Voodoo has flourished in Haiti and continues to be one of the strongest elements underlying Haitian culture. This film dispels Hollywood stereotypes and presents Voodoo as a belief system that has been passed down from African ancestor to slave to present day Haitian. Traveling...

This poetic documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of "pre-history," to the values of ancestors only recently remembered, and to the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. Goddess Remembered features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Luisah Teish, Starhawk, Charlene Spretnak, and Jean Bolen, who link the loss of goddess-centred societies with today's environmental crisis. They propose a return to the belief in an interconnected life system,...

[Matthew] Learn how Matthew reshaped the story of Jesus in startling new ways, specifically with its ideas on forgiveness. Start by confronting Jesus’s relationship to Israel’s heritage. Then, read between the lines of the iconic Sermon on the Mount. Finally, examine the coexistence of faith and doubt during Jesus’s resurrection.

[Acts 17–28, 1 Thessalonians] Paul’s travels to cities like Corinth and Philippi, and his letters to the Christian communities there, offer a lens into the relationship between early Christianity and the Roman Empire. From conflicts between Jesus’s kingship and Roman imperial rule to the events of Paul’s imprisonment, consider some narrative and spiritual challenges faced by the writer of Acts.

[Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job] Questions about the meaning of life abound in the Bible’s books of wisdom literature: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Join Professor Koester as he unpacks each book’s distinctive character and outlook, the answers it offers to life’s questions (sometimes straightforward, sometimes nebulous), and its contribution to a fascinating dialogue on how to live.

[Galatians, Romans] Continue your exploration of Paul’s letters, this time by studying the correspondence he wrote to the Galatians and the Romans. In these letters, you’ll find some of Paul’s most provocative ideas about freedom and law—ideas that would play a profound role in shaping subsequent Christian communities.

Should death be considered "bad”? Should we even bother fearing it? As you reflect on philosophical arguments by the ancient Epicurus (who thought death wasn’t bad for the dead) and the modern Thomas Nagel (who believes we should fear death), you’ll consider the possibility that both sides are right.

Can Rules Define Morality? addresses formalist theories of ethics, particularly that of Immanuel Kant, and explores the implications of his views in relation to ethical issues..

[Hebrews, James, 1 Peter] Paul wasn’t the only letter writer in the New Testament. Join Professor Koester for a discussion of the books of Hebrews, James, and 1 Peter, which sought to comfort and inspire early Christian outsiders through keeping the faith, focusing on integrity, and questioning what it means to "belong.”

This lecture explores what Jesus said about himself, as well as what he specifically preached. Grasp the nature and purpose of Jesus's ethical teachings, and his view of himself as a prophet of the coming kingdom. Study the Jewish conception of the Messiah as a warrior-king who would overthrow the enemies of Israel.