This article explores principles of teaching and learning found within the "Bhagavad Gita", a sacred Hindu text. After an in-depth thematic hermeneutic analysis of two translations of the text, we found eight themes, including the disciple's role: questioning and emulating the "Guru"; the "Guru's" role: teaching as…

This paper initiates a novel discourse advocating for the anti-colonization of religious education (RE) in Africa South of the Sahara (ASoS). It illustrates how anti-colonial critiques can not only offer more precise theoretical perspectives but also generate a practical imperative for a paradigm shift in a school subject "still"…

This essay explores the issue of dress of teachers of Druze heritage. The Druze, among whom the rules of religious dress are rather specific, do not teach religion in schools, since the Druze religion is secret. The teacher acts as a gatekeeper and model. At the same time, Druze young people are becoming increasingly secular and may relate better…

This response to David T. Hansen's 2016 plenary address to the Religious Education Association tests the viability of educational cosmopolitanism for religious education. Using a Deweyan methodology of understanding an idea through its consequences, Hansen's proposal is analyzed using dialogues with interreligious and Islamic pedagogies. The…

The struggle for mutual respect of difference may be the most paradigmatic form of public conflict in the United States and elsewhere today. In recent years, a movement and broad community of practice has burgeoned in the United States and beyond, which brings people together across deep divides to engage in dialogue aimed to reduce conflict and…

The title of this article has been taken from the book "I and Thou" by the German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (1923). He formulated it as a creed in a world dominated by what he called "I-It" relationships (i.e., relations with objects rather than with human subjects). The digital revolution of the past decades has made…

As interreligious educators we challenge our students to engage in hermeneutical self-reflection. In this article, I turn the tables, and engage in an exercise of reflective practice: I look back on my own pedagogy, consider my own religiously diverse classroom, and ask in what way the theoretical framework from which I approach interreligious…

This paper explores the spatial and environmental conditions for democratic education in an interreligious project. The interreligious project provides a case for applying Dewey's concepts of experience and environment. Four kinds of experiences are presented: invited places-being a guest, common meeting points-shaping an interreligious…

Using historic documents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and resources of its leaders, the principles of LDS or Mormon education and its key characteristics are described. In particular, the following characteristics are discussed: (1) the critical role of the Spirit in both teaching and learning, (2) the worthiness,…

Interreligious education has been a concern over the past few decades and continues to be a challenge. This article will review ways in which religious education has attempted to face the issue of education for increasingly multifaith societies. It identifies objectivity in religion as a major concern and will provide a perspective based on the…

As one of the oldest surviving educational religious models in the history of Muslim education, Mahdara remains a poorly studied desert-based religious institution of traditional learning. In its Bedouin context, the Mahdara produced religious scholars no less competent in the mastery of religious Islamic sciences than graduates of other reputable…

In our teaching, research, and community service, both of us have sought to engage and extend the work of interfaith education. We write from our perspectives as a Jewish educator and as a Christian educator. Both of us have experienced the gifts and challenges this work engenders. The purpose of this article is simple: to offer a typology for…

This article addresses four models of leadership that Christian communities may want to adopt to help them assess and articulate a more vibrant and dynamic youth ministry. In particular, this article will demonstrate that authentic Christian leadership for youth ministry is much more than teaching young people about pastoral skills, but requires a…

In this article, the emerging field of youth ministry research is presented and interpreted through the lens of practical theology. International developments are described and compared as local responses to the ongoing global dynamics of youth culture. After an overview of four different contexts in which youth ministry research can be situated,…

This article examines some of the pertinent challenges arising out of personal experiences encountered through teaching religion and theology within an African environment. What the author describes as the "new Africa" in his title is a continent that has transitioned from slavery and colonialism into a global fraternity of democratic…