HarvardX Courses

These courses are self-paced and always free to audit. During enrollment, participants will choose either the free course or an additional paid option to earn certificates of completion. Sign up today to learn in conversation with others across the globe.

Religion, Conflict, and Peace in Contemporary Global Affairs

This course is offered online to a global audience through Harvard X. Participants have the opportunity to take it for free or sign up for a Certificate for $50.

Course Description

In this course, we will explore a series of contemporary conflicts in different regions of the world with a special focus on identifying and analyzing the diverse and complex roles that religions play in both promoting and mitigating violence in each context. Students will learn a method for recognizing and analyzing how religious ideologies are embedded in all arenas of human agency and not isolated from political, economic, and cultural life as is often assumed.

In addition to examining the conflicts themselves, the course will explore the religious dimensions of the impacts those conflicts have on civic life in areas such as public health, education, and commerce.

World Religions through Their Scriptures

This popular series that has enrolled over 730,000 participants representing over 120 countries.

Course Description

This is a collaborative project among seven colleagues at HDS, FAS, and Wellesley College to create a series of modules introducing participants to the academic study of religion through some of the central texts of six of the world’s religious traditions with an emphasis on origins and interpreters.

Many contemporary conflicts across the globe are related to religion and yet few people are equipped to understand what those religious dimensions entail. For a variety of complex reasons, many people believe that the best way to understand religion is to understand religious texts.