Teaching a course on religions of the world is challenging, especially considering the cogent critiques of that paradigm and the history of its construction. In our courses and text, we have employed a strategy comparing different representations of a single religion to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Within this…

This series of three essays by educators from Georgia, Texas, and Alabama examines teaching Asian Religions in the American South. Through reflection on individual experience, each essay offers concrete strategies for the classroom that can be utilized by fellow educators working in the American South, but can also inform pedagogy in other North…

This essay is concerned with study abroad experiences as opportunities for student cognitive development, using the interpretive lens of educational psychologist William G. Perry. A standard and often valuable assignment in courses on world religions is a site visit to a religious institution in one's local area. This may concretize otherwise…

A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their own. However, when the focus of the course is…

Conservative (fundamentalist, evangelical) Christian students present a general theological worldview that often correlates with significant anxiety. In a foreign setting, the anxiety of conservative students, removed from their supportive infrastructure, can be considerably heightened. This structure of thinking and emotion presents distinctive…

The present article describes a modular approach to teaching Genesis 1-3 that values depth over breadth even in an introductory class. The module allows students to learn about the text and its original context by orienting discussion around contemporary issues of practical concern. Specifically, the creation-evolution debates provide an…