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 […]
Lived Religion
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]