Harvard University is launching a free online religious literacy course to combat widespread misunderstanding about world faiths.

The course aims to help participants better understand religious influences, which is "a critical dimension of understanding modern human affairs".

"There remains a widespread illiteracy about religion that spans the globe," a website for the Religious Literacy Project reads. "There are many consequences of this illiteracy, but the most urgent is that it fuels conflict and antagonisms and hinders cooperative endeavors in all arenas of human experience."

Project director Diane Moore told the Express Tribune that students will study the holy texts of different faiths, and leading scholars from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism will take part.

"Though a better understanding of religion is not itself going to cure the world's ills, it can certainly help create bridges and better understanding of our fellow humans," Moore said.

"When students examine sacred texts such as the Bible and Quran, they'll be noting how they can be differently interpreted."

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Moore added that the course will specifically address the evolving nature of world religions, and how "internally diverse" they can be.

She wants to combat the "problematic assumption that religions are internally uniform and ahistorical".

The course will begin on 1 March, and organisers are expecting up to 50,000 people to enrol.