Pioneering Interreligious Education in the Gambia

Some circles suggest that the phenomenon of intolerance and religious conflict in Indonesia will be reduced by a religious education model dominated by a mono-religious approach. The approach that focuses on deepening the knowledge of all religions is considered to be the cause of the persistence of interfaith stigma and prejudice. However, there are objections from various circles to the concept and application of interreligious education which requires close dialogue and interaction, an appreciative attitude, and openness to adherents of other religions. This article argues that the development of a peaceful and diverse mono-religious education approach is possible. This study employs Mohammed Abu-Nimer's theory as an alternative model of Islamic peace education that is strategic, participatory and practical; it focuses on his experience in conflict areas and in the Islamic education environment, which is often stigmatized conservatively in the Middle East and Africa. This study confirms that monoreligious education provides room for peace education that builds pedagogy of tolerance, diversity and human rights.

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Limits and Possibilities of Sharing Christian Worship in an Interreligious Educational Setting

Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology ◽

10.1558/isit.33665 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 206-223

Author(s):

Jennifer Peace

Keyword(s):

Planning Process ◽

Leadership Education ◽

Thick Description ◽

Unitarian Universalist ◽

Religious Traditions ◽

Religious Ritual ◽

Worship Service ◽

Theological School ◽

Christian Worship ◽

Interreligious Education

This paper discusses a worship service I designed and led in November of 2014 at Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS). As a member of the faculty, a practicing Christian and a religious educator and interfaith organizer, I am invited to lead a service each year in the Chapel at ANTS. In particular, as the ANTS’ co-director of the Center for Interreligious and Communal Leadership Education (CIRCLE), a joint program between ANTS and Hebrew College, I was charged with making the service an “interfaith” gathering, open and inviting for Unitarian Universalist, Muslim, and Jewish guests, while still providing an authentic expression of Christian worship. This article offers a first-person narrative and thick description of the service, the planning process, the broader context of interreligious education at our schools, and reflections on both the possibilities and limits of sharing particular religious rituals across diverse religious traditions for educational purposes. Drawing on the work of interreligious educators I identify a set of goals for interreligious education and explore the potential for religious ritual to both contribute to and complicate these goals. I describe the worship service as a ritual event in the life of a Christian seminary as well as its meaning and role in the process of interreligious coformation that is part of CIRCLE’s work.

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