Studying Hinduism? Introduce your students to the Ramayana with this essay by Daljit Nagra. He’s written a new book about the fantastical stories of Rama and Sita which make up the great Indian epic, the Ramayana. In an essay for the Guardian, Nagra explains the popularity of the tales, their history, and their importance to Hindus. In 1987 and 1988, Indian television serialized the epic for an audience of over 100,000,000 people. According to Nagra, the epic was first written between 2000... Read more

Here’s a good, quick, animated overview of the four Hindu yogas–Bhakti, Karma, Jnana, and Raja. Read more

Teaching the spread of Christianity?  Here’s a site of interactive maps involving Jesus, Christianity and the Bible. The interactive maps include Paul’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd journeys. Thanks to Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers for  the links. Read more

According to the Wall Street Journal, many churches are dispensing with traditional pews. “At bottom:” the Wall Street Journal reports, “churches want to trim remodeling costs, maximize space flexibility with stackable seating, or create a more approachable atmosphere to draw in unchurched young people.” Thanks to Sarah Pulliam for tweeting the link. Read more

ABC News | More ABC News Videos Malala Yousafza, the 16 year old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban last year because of her support for female education, sits down with Diane Sawyer.  “I was spared for a reason,” she tells Sawyer. Here is the video with a short story about the interview at  the Huffington Post on the occasion of a new book by Malala, simply called “I am Malala.” With the book’s publication, the Taliban has renewed... Read more

You can see Chagall’s Jewish Jesus  at The Jewish Museum in New York in a program called  “Chagall: Love, War, and Exile.”  In the clip above, a curator explains some of Chagalls’s work including the crucified Christ.  And here’s an interesting story from Art News. Read more

Gurus are an important part of Hindu culture. But transplant them to America and you’ll find a culture willing to believe, even if the guru is a fake called Kumaré. Here is the Kumaré’s story from Interfaith voices last year.   Read more

The Huffington Post has a slide show of what it thinks are the 50 most interesting mosques from around the world. You’ll see interesting domes, minarets, and some very nontraditional architecture. For example, here is the Mashkhur Jusup Central Mosque in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.  The slide show is fascinatingand especially good with a high resolution computer screen. Read more

Here’s an excellent clip on Untouchables in India. I’m going to show it to my World History class next week when we begin studying the Indus River and the roots of Hinduism. Read more

Teaching Hinduism?  Here’s an excellent explanation of Atman and Brahman from Sanskrit scholar and physicist, Dean Brown. Read more