In these 32 lectures, explore thousands of years of deep reflection and brilliant debate over the nature of God, the human self, and the world. It's a debate that serves as a vivid introduction to the rich and complex history shared by the West's central religious and philosophical traditions. What is the ultimate reality? What can we know about it - or what should we believe about it? How do our questions and thoughts, our hopes and fears, relate us to it? Is this ultimate reality a person whom we meet, or an object that we contemplate? To learn how these and other crucial questions have been discussed over the past three millennia is to enter the core of our intellectual heritage - to find the origin of some of our deepest perplexities and most cherished aspirations. By the end of the final lecture, you'll have gained a new or sharpened fluency in issues that include the historical interaction between philosophical and religious traditions; the philosophical origin of certain key religious concepts, such as the immortality of the soul; the most prominent philosophical criticisms of religion; the classic proofs that have been attempted of the existence of God; and the reasons why many religious thinkers of the 20th century are suspicious of the alliances between philosophy and religion. Whether you're a believer, a seeker (or both), you'll find much to spark your deepest ponderings in these talks on the long and rich interplay between faith and reason.
