Illiteracy and misunderstanding about the religions of others is something that spans the globe and has caused wars, death and suffering for thousands of years but now Harvard’s Divinity School has come up with their own solution to prevent this type of misunderstanding. Five leading professors at Harvard Divinity School and Wellesly College have teamed to create a free online course on world religions and give people an academic understanding about world religions.

The course include’s six classes on different subjects that will each run for four weeks and Diane Moore, director of Harvard’s Divinity School is teaching the first course in the series on “Religious Literacy: Traditions and Scriptures,” which begins on March 1. Following her course there will be five more courses that will cover into specific faiths, including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.

“Religious literacy entails more than just knowing the Five Pillars of Islam or Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths,” Moore said to The Huffington Post. Such an approach “reinforces the problematic assumption that religions are internally uniform and ahistorical,” she added. Instead, Moore suggested that religious literacy should include an understanding that religious traditions are “internally diverse,” ever-evolving, and play complex roles in people’s lives.

50,000 people are expected to enroll for the series, and it will be free for anyone who wants to audit the course. Those who are interested in earning a certificate of achievement at the end of the series, will pay $50 for the non-audit track.

This in our opinion is a great way to further one’s education, learn about the world and expand ones knowledge. If you have never taken a class at Harvard before this is also a very great opportunity to say you have done it.

Please share this with as many people on social media, a free educational opportunity from Harvard that also promotes global understanding like this is something you don’t want to miss!

Click here to view the course page.

Watch the promo video for the course below.