Teaching Interreligious Encounters

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.

Marc A. Pugliese is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religion at Saint Leo University.

Alexander Y. Hwang is an Adjunct Faculty member at Xavier University.

Acknowledgements

Introduction
Marc A. Pugliese and Alexander Y. Hwang

Part I. Theorizing Encounters: Paradigms, Exemplars, Caveats, and Strange Bedfellows

"Pluralism and Power: Considering What Counts in the Discourse on Religions"
Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Fordham University

"Masao Abe and Comparative Theology"
Leo D. Lefebure, Georgetown University

"The 'Us-Them' Dilemma: The Need for Reflexivity while Teaching Interreligious Encounters"
J. Derrick Lemons, University of Georgia

"Pluralistic Pedagogy for Pluralism"
Hsiao-Lan Hu, University of Detroit Mercy

"Maintaining Neutrality while Teaching Religious Studies"
Robert McKim, University of Illinois

"Interreligious Literacy and Scriptural Reasoning: Some Hermeneutical, Anthropological, Pedagogical and Experiential Reflections"
Marianne Moyaert, Faculty of Theology, KU Leuven, Belgium

"Theological Pluralism, Interreligious Dialogue, And Encountering 'Reality'"
Louis Komjathy, University of San Diego

Part II. Designing Encounters: Course Design, Strategies, and Challenges

"Challenges in Teaching Islamic Studies in Western Universities: The Problem of Streamlining Islam for Undergraduates"
Imranali Panjwani, King's College London

"A Primer on Teaching Interreligious Encounter and Undergraduate Course Design"
Hans Gustafson, University of St. Thomas

"Teaching Comparative Political Theology: Text Selection and Sample Texts for a Course on Christianity and Chinese Religions"
Joshua R. Brown, University of Dayton

"Using Hevruta to Do and Teach Comparative Theology"
Devorah Schoenfeld, Loyola University Chicago, and Jeanine Diller, University of Toledo

Part III. Textual Encounters: Methods, Texts, and Traditions

"Teaching Exodus Inter-Religiously"
Daniel Maoz and Allen Jorgenson, Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

"Interreligious Teachings and the Qur'an: The Art of Interpretation"
Hussam S. Timani, Christopher Newport University

"Reading Ignatius in Kathmandu: Towards a new Pedagogy of Interreligious Dialogue"
Thomas Cattoi, Santa Clara University

"Introducing the Bhagavad Gita as Theological Source Text: Text and Commentary, Teacher and Student"
Jonathan Edelmann, University of Florida

Part IV. Practical Encounters: Case Studies, Site Visits, and Immersion Programs

"Sacred Spaces and Interreligious Learning"
Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, Claremont School of Theology

"Teaching Interreligious Encounters through Case Studies"
Emily Sigalow, Duke University, and Wendy Cadge, Brandeis University

"The Case Study Method as a Means of Teaching About Pluralism"
Brendan W. Randall and Whittney Barth, The Pluralism Project, Harvard University

"A Contextual Model for Interreligious Learning"
Marianne Farina, C.S.C., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and Robert W. McChesney, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley

Part V. Formational Encounters: Preparation for Vocation and Citizenship

"Teaching Interfaith Leadership"
Eboo Patel and Cassie Meyer, Interfaith Youth Core

"Teaching Interspiritual Dialogue to Health Care Professionals: Reflections on a Course for Pharmacy Students"
Kelly R. Arora, Iliff School of Theology

"The Mystic Traveler in a Global Spiritual Age"
Patricia Zimmerman Beckman, St. Olaf University