Teaching Interfaith Leadership

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eboo Patel ◽  
Cassie Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Definition Of

As religious diversity increases, there is an opportunity in the religious studies or theology classroom to teach students the knowledge and skills that will allow them to constructively engage that diversity in their professions. In this chapter, we sketch a concrete, interdisciplinary approach to teaching what we call “interfaith leadership” in the college classroom. We begin by offering a working definition of interfaith leadership, and then explore strategies for teaching interfaith leadership, including resources and activities. Surveyed approaches to teaching the knowledge aspect of interfaith leadership include texts exploring the interactions of diverse religious communities, theologies or ethics of interfaith cooperation, and spiritual autobiographies. Approaches to teaching the skills aspect of interfaith engagement include case studies, interfaith events, projects to build interfaith cooperation, and partnerships with interfaith groups and organizations.

Latina/o Religious Studies Since the 1970s

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-235
Author(s):  
Felipe Hinojosa
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Community Formation ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
Faith Practices ◽  
The Times

This article provides an overview of the field of Latina/o religious studies since the 1970s. Motivated by the political tenor of the times, Latina/o religious studies began as a political project committed to contextualizing theological studies by stressing racial identity, resistance to church hierarchy, and economic inequality. Rooted in a robust interdisciplinary approach, Latina/o religious studies pulls from multiple fields of study. This article, however, focuses on the field’s engagements with ethnic studies in the last fifty years, from the 1970s to the contemporary period. It argues that while the field began as a way to tell the stories, faith practices, and theologies of religious insiders (i.e., clergy and religious leaders), recent scholarship has expanded the field to include the broader themes of community formation, labor, social movements, immigrant activism, and an intentional focus on the relationships with non-religious communities.

Engaging Radical Alterity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Komjathy
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Essential Characteristic ◽  
Theology Of Religions ◽  
Radical Alterity ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Theological Training

As someone located in Daoist Studies and Religious Studies without formal theological training, I have developed my own pedagogical approach to teaching Comparative Theology and the theologies of religious diversity. I begin with a discussion of the relative appropriateness and problematic nature of the terms “Theology” and “Comparative Theology” for studying non-Christian and even nontheistic traditions. I then move on to present a quasi-normative polytheistic or pluralistic theology of religions and discuss Religious Studies classrooms as dialogic spaces and interreligious encounters. I emphasize that the postcolonial and postmodern study of religion assumes theology is an essential characteristic, which also reveals mutually exclusive, equally convincing accounts of “reality.” Comparative Theology and interreligious dialogue provide helpful methodologies for addressing the challenges of radical alterity. We may endeavor to “think through” alternative perspectives and, in the process, defamiliarize the familiar and familiarize the unfamiliar.

Reflections on the Concept of Religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

There is no definition of religion that is universally valid and generally accepted in religious studies. Increasing numbers of scholars of religion see the attempt to define religion as doomed to failure, and therefore do not even try. A concept of religion is, however, indispensable for staking out the subject area which the sociology of religion and religious studies are concerned with. Defining clearly what is meant by religion is necessary not only to determine the content of the object to be examined and to distinguish it from other objects, but also to detect changes in the field of study. After discussing different approaches that are taken to define religion, the chapter proposes a working definition that combines substantive and functional arguments. The different forms of religious meaning available to mediate between immanence and transcendence can be classified as religious identification, religious practices, and religious belief and experience.

scholarly journals The paranormal

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristoffer Tidelius
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Strong Case ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of

In this article, I explore previous conceptualizations of ‘the paranormal’ within religious studies and the social sciences. Introducing some statistics on paranormal variables in Western populations, I argue that the empirical data make a strong case for future studies of paranormal variables, as well as warranting conceptual clarification. Sketching an outline of previous conceptualizations of ‘the paranormal’, I conclude that definitions tend to stress that purportedly paranormal phenomena transgress the boundaries of scientific explanation, as well as demonstrate a degree of tension towards both mainstream or institutionalized science and religion. Lastly, I present the main contribution of the article: an attempt at a new working definition of the term ‘the paranormal’ based on the conceptualizations reviewed, encompassing substantial and discursive components and, possibly, functional ones.

The Case Study Method as a Means of Teaching about Pluralism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan W. Randall ◽  
Whittney Barth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Case Study Method ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
Definition Of

In her course on religious diversity in the United States, Dr. Diana Eck of Harvard University introduces students to a range of religious traditions, especially those associated with more recent waves of immigration. Using case studies as the organizational pedagogy, Eck urges students to consider a particular response to increased religious diversity, namely pluralism as a civic value. We explore whether Eck’s use of the case study method provides mechanisms by which the “encounter of commitments” (a key concept in Eck’s definition of pluralism) could occur among students and thereby promote a pluralistic disposition. Although we found evidence of such encounters, their pedagogical impact may have been undermined by the lack of a precise understanding of civic pluralism and a reluctance among some students to share their views.

scholarly journals Polemical Comparisons in Discourses of Religious Diversity: Conceptual Remarks and Reflexive Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Brauner
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Current State ◽  
Scholarly Practice ◽  
Emic And Etic

Using comparisons to disparage others is a technique we all know from everyday life. In discourses of religious diversity, such polemical comparisons also play a prominent role in the making and unmaking of inter- and intra-religious boundaries and hierarchies. Linking polemical comparisons to more general methodological questions, this conceptual piece provides an analytical framework for the different case studies to follow. It takes up the call for a “double hermeneutics” in addressing comparing both as historical and scholarly practice. By adopting such a reflexive perspective, the analysis of polemical comparisons is situated at the interstices between emic and etic perspectives on the religious field. I briefly outline the current state of debate on comparisons in general and in religious studies in particular and situate polemical comparisons within these debates. I then move on to provide a typology of polemical comparisons, proposing some basic terms and perspectives for studying such comparisons in different constellations.

A Working Definition of Mind

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Farr
Keyword(s):  
Working Definition ◽  
Definition Of

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teaching Contemporary Issues in Psychology: School Shootings

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Weiner ◽  
Heidi Hendershott ◽  
Danielle Herget ◽  
Meridith Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
Approach To Teaching

Responding to the Wendy Doniger Controversy

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Steven Ramey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Robust Analysis ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Academic Study

The controversy over Penguin India withdrawing Wendy Doniger's book, announced in February 2014, provides an occasion to consider the problems and possibilities within the academic study of religion. As the controversy centered on representations of what both Doniger and her opponents termed Hinduism, the problems with adjudicating contested definitions of religions or the category religions becomes apparent. Rather than assuming that we can present a normative definition of any of these terms, I argue that scholars should avoid applying these contested labels themselves and recognize instead whose application of contested labels that they use. This approach facilitates a more robust analysis of the ways these terms enter the negotiation of various conflicts and the interests and assumptions behind them, making religious studies more relevant to contemporary society.

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