Religion plays an important role for millions of people across the globe. The different religious beliefs have – or have had – an important influence over societies’ customs, identities and political structures, also in the way they establish relations with the rest of the world. In that sense, this course introduces the student to the main religions of the planet, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddism but also other religions.
The objective is to know the key aspects of those beliefs and assess why they have shaped differently – or not so – societies and what are the geopolitical implications of this phenonmenon. In addition, the second part of the course looks at specific societal issues such as globalization, migration, violence, gender, popular culture or climate change and how they are related to religion.