Sacred Texts of the World (The Great Courses #6160) by Professor Grant Hardy

With few exceptions, the world's religions are anchored in their sacred texts-core writings that express the ideals and vision of the faiths, forming a basis for belief and action. Humanity's library of sacred writings is a huge canon that includes many of the most influential books ever written. In addition to the Hebrew and Christian bibles and the Quran of Islam, major sacred writings include the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Sutras, Daoism's Daodejing, and the Analects of Confucius, as well as the beloved texts of religions such as Zoroastrianism and Jainism, and modern faiths such as Baha'i.

These are texts that people live by and, at times, are willing to die for.

In these 36 lectures, Professor Hardy takes you deeply into the body of sacred writings that have played a fundamental role in human culture and history. Discussing a broad range of texts, the course examines the scriptures of seven major religions, as well as nine lesser known or smaller faiths, including texts from the ancient Egyptian and Mayan societies. In addition to studying the scriptures of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds, you'll discover religious texts from vastly differing cultures around the world.

These richly insightful lectures highlight a global legacy of faith, thought, and spirituality.

I am impressed - soooo impressed - with Professor Grant Hardy's lectures on Sacred Texts of the World. It's one of Audible's The Great Courses and it is fascinating! It covers ancient texts as well as modern, and everything in between.

Why am I so impressed? Because he gives us 36 faith specific chapters worth of lectures (each about 30 minutes long) and even though he can't possibly have lived each of these religions, he shares informed, impartial, compassionate insights. He talks about the text's level of importance to each faith, and not once did he mock, make light, snicker, or disrespect those that he might disagree with. Nor could I even tell if he disagreed with any of them!

Sacred Texts of the World has easily become one of my favorite of The Great Courses.

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques Audible's Great Courses) by Professor James Hynes

Blurb...Whether you're huddled around the campfire, composing an email to a friend, or sitting down to write a novel, storytelling is fundamental to human nature. But as any writer can tell you, the blank page can be daunting. It's tough to know where to get started, what details to include in each scene, and how to move from the kernel of an idea to a completed manuscript.

Writing great fiction isn't a gift reserved for the talented few. There is a craft to storytelling that can be learned, and studying writing techniques can be incredibly rewarding - both personally and professionally. Even if you don’t have ambitions of penning the next Moby-Dick, you'll find value in exploring all the elements of fiction.

From evoking a scene to charting a plot to revising your drafts, Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques offers a master class in storytelling. Taught by award-winning novelist James Hynes, a former visiting professor at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, these 24 insightful lectures show you the ins and outs of the fiction writer's craft. Get tips for developing believable and memorable characters, explore how to craft plausible dialogue that serves the purposes of your narrative, compare the advantages of different points of view, and more. A wealth of exercises will inspire you to practice the many techniques you learn. Professor Hynes is an able guide, showing you what has worked for him and other novelists, and pointing out pitfalls to avoid. Writing Great Fiction is truly an exceptional course for anyone interested in storytelling.

This audio lecture was more than I had expected it to be, but not what I needed it to be. There's a lot of great detail given to writing techniques such as point of view, plotting, capturing your readers's attention and things like that, but I was looking for something more basic. Something less geared toward the mechanics of writing, and more focused on theories and ideas such as finding your muse, using your own experiences to flesh out a story...simple examples that would have hopefully had me me saying "Aha! Great idea! I can do that!" but there was nothing like that. James Hynes, the author/lecturer, used examples from what he called "great classics", citing authors I had never heard of before which added to my lack of interest in much of what he was trying to tell us.

Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques

Gnosticism: From Nag Hammadi to the Gospel of Judas Narrated by David Brakke

I’m always intrigued by the origins of things; language, cultures, traditions... which is why I love listening to The Great Courses’ historical (especially ancient histories) lectures. Though I struggled through the first 20% or so of this lecture because it wasn’t at all what I expected, it was still fascinating and eye-opening, to say the least.

Gnosticism: From Nag Hammadi to the Gospel of Judas is ‘narrated by Professor David Brakke who did a fabulous job explaining the differences and divisions, no matter how intricate, between the many early ‘religions’ and how they related to, or differed from, Christianity.

From the website:

This course takes on these provocative questions and more, in a narrative that unfolds as an enthralling religious detective story—penetrating the mysteries of a stigmatized yet profoundly important legacy of religious thought. Among many intriguing features of the story, you’ll learn that:

• What we call “Gnosticism” comprises a number of related religious ideologies and movements, all of which sought “gnosis,” or immediate, direct, and intimate knowledge of God;

• Gnostic groups reinterpreted and often rewrote Jewish and Christian scriptures, creating religious mythologies that struck deep chords in contemporary seekers;

• Gnostic thought and practice reveal to us the precursors of the mystical tradition within Christianity.

Many of the teachings of the early churches read like Greek or Roman mythology, which was, as I said, not at all what I had expected. Once I wrapped my head around what I was listening to, I simply couldn’t turn it off.

I highly recommend this 12ish hour lecture to anyone interested, as I am, in the ancient origins of theologies.

For more information check out The Great Courses: From Nag Hammadi to the Gospel of Judas