Harvard launches free online class to promote religious literacy

This is one example of the “widespread illiteracy about religion that spans the globe

Sales of the Quran skyrocketed in the United States following 9/11. Perhaps it was a search for answers, or a desire to parse out certain stereotypes, that made some people turn to the Muslim holy text.

But the increased circulation of the Quran due to the rise of the so-called Islamic State has not always helped people to better understand and respect the faith. If anything, fear and prejudice toward Islam has risen. 

This is one example of the “widespread illiteracy about religion that spans the globe,” said Diane Moore, director of Harvard Divinity School’s Religious Literacy Project to The Huffington Post.

To combat this illiteracy, Moore and five other religion professors from Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College are kicking off a free, online series on world religions open to the masses. The courses are being offered via an online learning platform called edX, which Harvard University launched with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012.