In Teaching Interreligious Encounters, Marc A. Pugliese and Alexander Y. Hwang have gathered together a multidisciplinary and international group of scholar-teachers to explore the pedagogical issues that occur at the intersection of different religious traditions. This volume is a theoretical and practical guide for new teachers as well as seasoned scholars. It breaks the pedagogy of interreligious encounters down into five distinct components. In the first part, essays explore the theory of teaching these encounters; in the second, essays discuss course design. The parts that follow engage practical ideas for teaching textual analysis, practice, and real-world application. Despite their disciplinary, contextual, and methodological diversity, these essays share a common vision for the learning goals and outcomes of teaching interreligious encounters. This is a much-needed resource for any teacher participating in these conversations in our age of globalization and migration, with its attendant hopes and fears.

Christian Perspectives on Transforming Interreligious Encounter underscores the urgency of interreligious dialogue for contemporary society, aiming to foster interfaith understanding, justice, and peace. The initial section focuses on novel approaches to engaging with the religious Other through non-Christian sacred texts. Contributors explore the Jewish-Christian relationship, offer Christian interpretations of Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian scriptures, and discuss the Qurʾān's potential to refine Christian theology. The dangers of comparative theology are warned against, and alternative perspectives, such as Asian liberation theology, are proposed for situating religion critically, as well as share the insights on Christian engagement with Zen practice. The second part explores the transformation of key Christian doctrines through interreligious encounters. Contributors delve into topics such as the conditions for faith and divine revelation, formulating a Christology in dialogue with Asian traditions, and understanding the Spirit as a source of questioning. They investigate the communitarian dimension of religious faith, discuss the Catholic Church's stance on interreligious dialogue, examine the role of biblical hermeneutics in decolonizing theology, and reflect on the existential threat of ecological destruction. The third part pays tribute to Leo Lefebure, emphasizing his impact on Catholic theology and comparative theology, and concludes with Lefebure's epilogue, providing him with the last word.

The editors of Experiments in Empathy: Critical Reflections on Interreligious Education have assembled a volume that spans multiple religious traditions and offers innovative methods for teaching and designing interreligious learning. This groundbreaking text includes established interreligious educators and emerging scholars who expand the vision of this field to include critical studies, decolonial approaches and exciting pedagogical developments. The book includes voices that are often left out of other comparative theology or interreligious education texts. Scholars from evangelical, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, religiously hybrid and other background enrich the existing models for interreligious classrooms. The book is particularly relevant at a time when religion is so often harnessed for division and hatred. By examining the roots of racism, xenophobia, sexism and their interaction with religion that contribute to inequity the volume offers real world educational interventions. The content is in high demand as are the authors who contributed to the volume. Contributors are: Scott Alexander, Judith A. Berling, Monica A. Coleman, Reuven Firestone, Christine Hong, Jennifer Howe Peace, Munir Jiwa, Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Tony Ritchie, Rachel Mikva, John Thatanamil, Timur Yuskaev.

This volume is a tribute to our esteemed colleague Professor John Martin Hull for his exceptional academic achievements in the field of religious education. Especially worth mentioning are his worldwide continuous efforts in trying to realize interreligious education and interreligious learning in public schools. In his approach there is a strong emphasis on openness, dialogue, and encounter. When we are looking for an adequate vignette to characterize the contribution of this famous religious educator, a good one might be ‘religious education as encounter’. That is why this volume is systematically focusing on this topic. It brings together contributions from leading researchers in the international field of religious education adhering to a great variety of religious or worldview traditions, and it addresses a wide range of perspectives regarding the concept of encounter in religious education.

Islamic theology had to wait a long time before being granted a place in the European universities. That happened above all in German-speaking areas, and this led to the development of new theological and religious pedagogical approaches. This volume presents one such approach and discusses it from various perspectives. It takes up different theological and religious pedagogical themes and reflects on them anew from the perspective of the contemporary context. The primary focus is on contemporary challenges and possible answers from the perspective of Islamic theology and religious pedagogy. It discusses general themes like the location of Islamic theology and religious pedagogy at secular European universities. The volume also explores concrete challenges, such as the extent to which Islamic religious pedagogy can be conceptualised anew, how it should deal with its own theological tradition in the contemporary context, and how a positive attitude towards worldview and religious plurality can be cultivated. At issue here are foundations of a new interpretation of Islam that takes into account both a reflective approach to the Islamic tradition and the contemporary context. In doing so, it gives Muslims the opportunity to take their own thinking further.

Religious diversity, cultural pluralism, and interreligious encounter are widely viewed in modern life as socially—and for many people of faith, spiritually—enriching. One of the most significant but frequently overlooked benefits of interreligious encounter is that it empowers us to see ourselves, and particularly our racialized identities, in new and revealing ways. In The Habits of Race and Faith in a Religiously Diverse World, Mara Brecht places whiteness under particular scrutiny—its tangled and entwined relationship with religious identity, as well as strategic associations with dominance and privilege. The analysis of whiteness gives way to fresh perspectives on Christian ideas about salvation, both in connection to religious faith and racial embodiment.

A groundbreaking academic anthology that explores the emerging field of interreligious/interfaith studies As it is now backed by an impressive number of courses, academic programs and centers, faculty positions, journals and publications, funding, and professional partnerships, there is no longer a question as to whether the interreligious/interfaith field exists. But its meaning and import are still being debated. How is this field distinct from, yet similar to, other fields, such as religious or theological studies? What are its signature pedagogies and methodologies? What are its motivations and key questions? In other words, what is the shape of interfaith and interreligious studies, and what is its distinct contribution? These questions are the driving force behind this anthology.

From the founding of Harvard College in 1636 as a mission for training young clergy to the landmark 1968 Supreme Court decision in Epperson v. Arkansas, which struck down the state's ban on teaching evolution in schools, religion and education in the United States have been inextricably linked. Still today new fights emerge over the rights and limitations of religion in the classroom. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and American Education brings together preeminent scholars from the fields of religion, education, law, and political science to craft a comprehensive survey and assessment of the study of religion and education in the United States. The essays in the first part develop six distinct conceptual lenses through which to view American education, including Privatism, Secularism, Pluralism, Religious Literacy, Religious Liberty, and Democracy. The following four parts expand on these concepts in a diverse range of educational frames: public schools, faith-based K-12 education, higher education, and lifespan faith development. Designed for a diverse and interdisciplinary audience, this addition to the Oxford Handbook series sets for itself a broad goal of understanding the place of religion and education in a modern democracy.

Based on ten years of research, God Beyond Borders is a comprehensive study of interreligious learning in faith communities. The United States is one of the most a diverse countries of the world. Kujawa-Holbrook details the many practices of interreligious learning in faith communities; through interreligious encounters, religious education, shared sacred space, shared prayer, and compassionate action. The book also surveys the field of interreligious learning and investigates some of the more common intentionally interreligious communities--families, clergy groups, chaplaincies, and community organizations. Kujawa-Holbrook combines theory and praxis to make a case for the importance of interreligious learning in all religious organizations.

Decolonizing Interreligious Educationexplores multiple injustices, focusing on the lived experience, unaddressed grief, and acts of resistance and resilience of populations most impacted by coloniality and white supremacy. It lifts up the voices of those speaking from embodied experience of suffering multiple oppressions based on negative constructs of race, religion, skin color, nationality, etc. Engaging ideological critique, construction of knowledge beyond dominant lenses, and acts of resistance are presented from the perspective of those most impacted by systemic injustice. It challenges interreligious education to frame encounters where the impact of intergeneration trauma and the realities of power differentials are recognized and the contributions of all voices are truly integrated. It challenges the fields of religious and interreligious education to imagine a broadened view that includes recognition of the role played by religion in harm done and to take a leadership role in engaging processes of accountability and redress.