ERIC Number: EJ923870
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0024-1822
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Interfaith Dialogue and Higher Education
Ray, S. Alan
Liberal Education, v96 n3 p38-45 Sum 2010
In the Fall of 2009, the author participated in the sixth conference of Interfaith Youth Core, an organization and social movement devoted to building "mutal respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others". On that occasion, Dr. Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core, raised a significant question that has since set the author thinking: Given how other social movements have deeply affected curricula, student programming, and institutional priorities, what is the highest aspiration one can set for colleges and universities around interfaith cooperation? In this article, the author discusses two main ways to understand and respond to this question. He sketches two models namely (1) interfaith cooperation as participation in a zero-sum game; and (2) interfaith cooperation as critical reappropriation of tradition. The first model presents a kind of zero-sum game, where interfaith cooperation achieves its impact by displacing the effects of other social movements. The second model eschews stereotypes of the secular and religious, and it recognizes that all faiths, including secularism, are living realities conditioned by multiple cultural currents--currents that affect religious, nonreligious, and even antireligious philosophies alike.
Descriptors: Cooperation, Religious Organizations, Intergroup Relations, Religion, Higher Education, General Education, Group Behavior, Social Change, Religious Factors, College Students
Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Illinois
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A