For students to fully participate in civic life, they must understand and appreciate the diversity and complexity of religious traditions. To gain this understanding, educators should teach about lived religions. This approach, advocated by Henry Goldschmidt of the Interfaith Center of New York, takes religion out of “the rarified realm of doctrine and text and […]
Blog
Beyond Religious Identity: Muslim Youth, the Duality of Consciousness, and Creating a Path in America
Finding one’s identity, in any community, and especially during adolescence, is not a linear path. But this journey is often more fraught when one is a member of a community of color or a community that is negatively perceived. In the case of Muslim youth, such stereotyping often leads to self-doubt or even outright rejection […]
Interested in Religious Literacy for Classroom Students? Chan’s Book Offers Important Insights
Guest Blog: Vicki Michela Garlock, Ph.D., Editor, Religion Matters Review of Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools by W.Y. Alice Chan (Routledge, 2021) We’ve read about increased antisemitism in the U.S. (Shveda/CNN, 2023). We might have heard that the majority of Sikh school students are harassed and ridiculed […]
Are Belief Systems a Unifying or Dividing Force? A Lesson Reflection
Guest Blog: Gretchyn Bedard, National Board Certified Social Studies Teacher Religions and belief systems have brought people together and torn groups apart. This phenomenon is something most students can comprehend, at least as it relates to the recent past and today. However, I have discovered that many of my students are largely unaware of how [...]
Islamic Funerary Practices Across the Globe During COVID-19
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School Overview Covid-19 impacted religious communities throughout the world. Grounded in the cultural studies approach to religion, advocated by The Program for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, this lesson aims to provide students an opportunity to explore the impact of Covid-19 on Muslim communities […]
Religious Literacy in French Classes: Changing Understandings of Laïcité
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School Cultivating religious literacy goes beyond the social studies classroom. In fact, world language teachers have some of the greatest opportunities to incorporate the academic study of religion into their lessons. Using a cultural studies approach and the framework from Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity […]
Religion All Around: Engaging Students with the Category of Religion
Guest Blog: Elsa Kunz, Graduate Student, Harvard Divinity School The category of “religion” is a challenging one, and many students arrive in the classroom with unexplored assumption about what “counts” as religion. For many students, “religion” is an isolatable category that occurs in designated spaces, places, and people. Yet the reality is that religion does […]
Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return to the Sacred
A Response to the Criticism of Janani Mandayam Comar’s Reading Religion Review Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall, Montclair State University While I welcome the constructive criticism of scholars in the field, I believe it is crucial to respond to the criticism of Janani Mandayam Comar who misunderstands and misrepresents my monograph Devotional Hindu Dance: A Return […]
Virtually Seeing What Takes Place Next
Guest Post: John Soboslai, Assistant Professor of Religion, Montclair State University This article is the third in a three-part series on using virtual reality (VR) to promote religious literacy and enhance civil discourse. My first post outlined the general idea of using virtual reality (VR) as a way to remotely step into various religious rituals. […]
Benjamin Franklin’s Contribution to Jewish Practice
Guest Post: Shai Afsai Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s Founding Fathers, was born on this date, January 17, in 1706. In addition to being a well-known statesman, he was a successful newspaper editor and inventor. He was also one of the founders of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, a predecessor of the University of […]
Teaching Religious Literacy with Films
Guest Post: Jennifer Fischer, Co-Founder, Think Ten Media Group Learning about different religions can feel challenging, even overwhelming. Fortunately, the world of film offers opportunities to improve religious literacy while also increasing empathy and understanding. Films are powerful learning tools, and most of us have at least one potent memory associated with a particular movie. […]
Ritual Selections: Deciding to See What Takes Place
Guest Post: John Soboslai, Assistant Professor of Religion, Montclair State University In my first post I outlined the goals and hopes that brought an interdisciplinary group of scholars and media creators together in June of 2022. Seeking to lay the foundation for a series of immersive, interactive, virtual reality experiences of religious rituals around the […]
Countering Islamophobia Through Film: Recommendations & Resources
Guest Post: Jennifer Fischer, Co-Founder, Think Ten Media Group Given how prevalent media is in our daily lives, challenging Islamophobia through film is an important and urgent matter. But doing so requires careful curation of the media that we consume. Nuanced, complex and authentic media representations do exist, but deliberate efforts are needed if we […]
Teaching About Judaism and Antisemitism in the Classroom
Guest Post: Rev. Vicki Michela Garlock, Ph.D., Founder, World Religions for Kids Once again, Jews find themselves in headlines across America almost every single day. Since early October, we’ve had Kanye West (aka Ye) tweeting that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” We’ve had Kyrie Irving suspended for five NBA games after […]
See What Takes Place: Virtual Reality in Teaching About Religious Rituals
Guest Post: John Soboslai, Assistant Professor of Religion, Montclair State University In the course evaluations from my Understanding Religion classes, students routinely wrote “this class should include more videos.” After initially shrugging off the request as students simply wanting to watch movies, I began to recognize the pedagogic insight behind their words. Students’ lives are, […]
The Case for Interfaith Education in Religious/Faith-Based Classrooms
Guest Blog: Rev. Lauren Zinn, Ph.D. This post is an edited version of If You Meet a Religious Leader on the Road… first published by ZinnHouse in 2016. Who is honored? He who gives honor to others. – Pirkei Avot An interfaith orientation within a mono-faith educational program is no longer optional. Today, it is essential. As countries around […]
Sanctuary Secrets: Learning About the Colonies Through Worship Spaces
Guest Blog: Meredith Henne Baker British colonization of the Atlantic Coast was widespread in 17th century America. However, that colonization was not entirely uniform. Environmental, cultural, and demographic factors all influenced the character of the colonies in different regions along the coast. In this lesson plan, comparisons between the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies […]
Religious Literacy: An Important Component of International Mindedness
Guest Blog: Samuel J. Richards International schools often promote international mindedness. This fuzzy phrase is ubiquitous but oftentimes not well-defined. The definition used by the widely-influential International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has changed over time. At its core, international mindedness is an aspirational call for students and faculty to recognize our interrelatedness as diverse nations and […]
Finding Diverse Ways to Deepen My Religious Life at University
Guest Blog: Dhanesh Rishi Budhram This article was first published by Hinduism Today on 6/30/22. In conjunction with the author, we have added short definitions, numerous links, and section headers to help non-Hindu readers more fully appreciate the richness of this post. I am a first-generation Hindu-American whose parents are from Guyana. My earlier ancestors […]