The focus of this book is on multifaith or interreligious learning, i.e. learning beyond the boundaries of one religion. Questions are raised about the proper understanding of religion, of perspectivity, of dealing with experiences of transcendence and of how to identify and distinguish the aims and goals of religious education.
There is still resistance in Christian institutions to interreligious dialogue. The author provides not only the theological grounding for such a position but also advice on how to teach and live out this conviction in a way that promotes greater understanding and respect for others and engenders a deeper appreciation of one's own faith tradition.
In Experiments in Empathy: Critical Reflections on Interreligious Education, the contributors provide a roadmap for practicing and developing innovative ways to teach religion that promotes interfaith understanding and cooperation.
The growth of secularisation, pluralism and globalisation have placed the West's traditional monoreligious education under pressure. Christianity no longer possesses a privileged position in Western Europe. Since the 1970's, a number of scholars have been trying to formulate an answer to this question of multireligiosity by developing a multireligious concept of religious education. As both a critique on, and alternative for, the multireligious model, scholars in the 1990s developed the interreligious model of religious education. This aproach distinguishes itself from monoreligious pedagogy through acknowledging plurality among the pupils as both a part of departure and as a possible end result of religious education. Moreover, it openly approaches the plurality of religions and worldviews as a learning opportunity. Religious education thus becomes a place of encounter and dialogue between different religious convictions. Interreligious learning further distinguishes itself from the multireligious model by overcoming a purely objective representation of the multitude of religions. In the interreligious model, students are not only informed, but are introduced to the cognitive and value commitments underlying the different religions, giving them the opportunity to enrich and develop their own personal religious identity. The teacher takes an explicit and particular religious (Christian) standpoint, but also tries to bring in other committed religious and philosophical voices. The interreligious model aims to teach students that holding a proper religious identity while having an openness to the religious other is not necessarily self-contradictory. What is more, that authentic religiosity is able to welcome the other in his/her vulnerability and strength as a witness to God. In this volume, scholars from various disciplines (theology, pedagogy, psychology and ethics) and from different religious backgrounds (Jews, Christians and Muslims) face up to a total of ten challenges related to interreligious learning. Challenges that may act as obstacles to the acceptance of this possible new paradigm for religious education.
"This book articulates a learning process to help educators improve approaches to other religious traditions. Understanding Other Religious Worlds distinguishes between learning facts about other religions and understanding them and their followers in a wholistic manner. Berling argues that incorporating the religious "other" in one's own Christian identity is integral to living an authentic Christian life."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Interreligiously offers a series of about one hundred short pieces, written online between 2008 and 2016. They are meant for a wide range of readers interested in interreligious dialogue, interreligious learning, and the realities of Hindu-Christian encounter today, and are rich in insights drawn from teaching, travels in America and India, and the author’s research on sacred texts. The author, a Catholic priest who has spent more than forty years learning from Hinduism and observing religion as a plus and minus in today’s world, has much to share with readers. Some pieces were prompted by items in the news, some go deeper into traditions and probe the rich Scriptures and practices going back millennia, some seek simply to provoke fresh thinking, and others invite spiritual reflection. The book is divided into several parts so that readers can focus on individual events that made the news or on longer term and more concerted study. Familiar texts such as the Yoga Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Qur’an, and key passages from the New Testament will be considered for their spiritual possibilities. Readers will find much here to learn from and respond to as they too consider religion in today’s world.
Divided into five components of teaching interreligious encounters--Theory, Design, Textual Analysis, Practice, and Formation--this volume guides both new teachers and seasoned scholars in addressing the sometimes challenging questions raised by contact between divergent faiths.
Living together in the midst of diversity is an issue of pivotal importance all over the world, in particular for people involved in the education of the younger generation. The search intended in this publication is to find the means to go beyond mere tolerance of differences. Education as envisioned in this book engages learners in active citizenship and enables pupils and students – young people – to transform their social environment. Learning about the other, and – to a certain extent – appreciating the other’s perspective, together with acquiring dialogical skills are key elements for learning to live together with people from different cultural backgrounds and with diverse religious and secular worldviews. Hence, faith development, dialogicality and citizenship are central themes in this publication. This book brings together the latest insights and ‘best practices’ available in the fields of religious education from around the world, which are reflected upon by distinguished scholars in the field. The input provided by the three parts of this book will give every educator further food for thought, be it in the classroom, at home or in leisure activities. The diversity approach of this book is mirrored in the composition of the team of editors. Duncan Wielzen is a theologian with research interest in religious education in plural societies; Ina Ter Avest is a psychologist with a focus on the intersectionality of psychology, culture and religion. The focus of both editors is on (inter)faith education, its implication and further development.
A book on teaching and learning in theological education, Decolonial Futures: Intercultural and Interreligious Intelligence for Theological Education is guided by the questions, "What makes education intercultural and interreligious?" "How might we rethink and redesign spaces of learning to be hospitable to cultural and religious differences as well as to dismantle the coloniality of theological education?" "How might we subvert traditionally colonial spaces to model the engaged intercultural and interreligious world that we seek?" The book helps educators and practitioners of intercultural and interreligious learning both deconstruct and reconstruct spaces of learning by centering interreligious and intercultural intelligence through the voices, experiences, and narratives of minoritized people.
When religious diversity is our reality, radical hospitality to people of other faiths is not a luxury but a necessity. More than necessary for our survival, radical hospitality to religious diversity is necessary if we are to thrive as a global society. By no means does the practice of hospitality in a multifaith world require that we be oblivious of our differences. On the contrary, it demands a respectful embrace of our differences because that's who we are. Neither does radical hospitality require that we water down our commitment, because faithfulness and openness are not contradictory. We must be able to say with burning passion that we are open to the claims of other faiths because we are faithful to our religious heritage. The essays in this book do not offer simply theological exhortations; they offer specific ways of how we can become religiously competent citizens in a multifaith world. Let's take the bold steps of radical openness with this book on our side!
