scholarly journals Awakening Christian Discipleship: Gleanings from an Experiment in Interreligious Education

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Kendra Fredrickson-Laouini
Keyword(s):  
Christian Identity ◽  
Christian Discipleship ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Interreligious Education

Through autoethnographic research, this article argues that interreligious education is integral to Christian discipleship and that living in a multi-religious world demands more than knowledge of the religious other. To live fully into a Christian identity in a multi-religious world demands interreligious education.

“What Is Truth?” Negotiating Christian Convert Asylum Seekers’ Credibility

2021 ◽  
Vol 697 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-235
Author(s):  
Lena Rose ◽  
Zoe Given-Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Religious Others ◽  
Religious Other ◽  
Cultural Cohesion

The arrival of more than five million refugees in Europe since 2015 has led to increasing investigations into Europe’s management of multiculturalism and religious pluralism. Studies to date have chiefly focused on the integration of the cultural and religious “other,” but we take a different approach by analyzing asylum proceedings in Germany, based on conversions from Islam to Christianity. Negotiations of credibility of newly converted Christian asylum seekers help to show how European legal authorities conceive of their own historically Christian identity and their expectations of newcomers. We show how these negotiations are influenced by the power dynamics in the courts, understandings of cultural and religious contexts, and assumptions about conversion and Christianity. Our interdisciplinary approach provides insights into how European legal authorities navigate the challenge of cultural and religious others to Europe’s cultural cohesion, “values,” and secularism.

Exil und religiöse Identität in einigen Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Billy Kristanto
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Divine Punishment ◽  
Christian Discipleship ◽  
The Way

Summary This article examines nine sacred cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach which address the subject of exile and religious identity. The biblical or general theological background of the text of each selected cantata, as well as the way in which Bach set the text to music, is discussed. We can learn from Bach that, first, there should be a legitimate space to express fear and insecurity about the arrival of foreigners. Second, believers who are in exile can associate their Christian identity with the life of Jesus while inviting unbelievers to find their identity in Jesus. Third, both suffering and hospitality are true features of Christian discipleship. Fourth, Bach’s interpretation of exile as a divine punishment is not the final message. The motif of exile as punishment is transformed by a Christological interpretation. Finally, the end of exile can be celebrated. In exile, believers dare to hope and to believe; at the end of the exile, believers celebrate without forgetting their past suffering. Both testify to a sound religious identity.

The Integral Nature of Ethnicity and Religion during Northern Ireland’s Troubles

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-18
Author(s):  
Peter Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
The World ◽  
Sectarian Conflict ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Religious Other

Northern Ireland’s Troubles conflict, like many complex conflicts through the world, has often been conceived as considerably motivated by religious differences. This paper demonstrates that religion was often integrated into an ethno-religious identity that fueled sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland during the Troubles period. Instead of being a religious-based conflict, the conflict derived from historical divides of power, land ownership, and civil and political rights in Ireland over several centuries. It relies on 12 interviews, six Protestants and six Catholics, to measure their use of religious references when referring to their religious other. The paper concludes that in the overwhelming majority of cases, both groups did not use religious references, supporting the hypothesis on the integrated nature of ethnicity and religion during the Troubles. It offers grounding for looking into the complex nature of sectarian and seemingly religious conflicts throughout the world, including cases in which religion acts as more of a veneer to deeply rooted identities and historical narratives.

Recontextualization of Islamic Peace Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-202
Author(s):  
Siti Rohmah ◽  
M. Syukri Ismail ◽  
Moh. Anas Kholish ◽  
Mona Novita
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Peace Education ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
Education Model ◽  
Interreligious Education

Some circles suggest that the phenomenon of intolerance and religious conflict in Indonesia will be reduced by a religious education model dominated by a mono-religious approach. The approach that focuses on deepening the knowledge of all religions is considered to be the cause of the persistence of interfaith stigma and prejudice. However, there are objections from various circles to the concept and application of interreligious education which requires close dialogue and interaction, an appreciative attitude, and openness to adherents of other religions. This article argues that the development of a peaceful and diverse mono-religious education approach is possible. This study employs Mohammed Abu-Nimer's theory as an alternative model of Islamic peace education that is strategic, participatory and practical; it focuses on his experience in conflict areas and in the Islamic education environment, which is often stigmatized conservatively in the Middle East and Africa. This study confirms that monoreligious education provides room for peace education that builds pedagogy of tolerance, diversity and human rights.

Limits and Possibilities of Sharing Christian Worship in an Interreligious Educational Setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-223
Author(s):  
Jennifer Peace
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
Leadership Education ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Unitarian Universalist ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Worship Service ◽  
Theological School ◽  
Christian Worship ◽  
Interreligious Education

This paper discusses a worship service I designed and led in November of 2014 at Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS). As a member of the faculty, a practicing Christian and a religious educator and interfaith organizer, I am invited to lead a service each year in the Chapel at ANTS. In particular, as the ANTS’ co-director of the Center for Interreligious and Communal Leadership Education (CIRCLE), a joint program between ANTS and Hebrew College, I was charged with making the service an “interfaith” gathering, open and inviting for Unitarian Universalist, Muslim, and Jewish guests, while still providing an authentic expression of Christian worship. This article offers a first-person narrative and thick description of the service, the planning process, the broader context of interreligious education at our schools, and reflections on both the possibilities and limits of sharing particular religious rituals across diverse religious traditions for educational purposes. Drawing on the work of interreligious educators I identify a set of goals for interreligious education and explore the potential for religious ritual to both contribute to and complicate these goals. I describe the worship service as a ritual event in the life of a Christian seminary as well as its meaning and role in the process of interreligious coformation that is part of CIRCLE’s work.

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