Explore the Religious Worlds of New York, and the Religious Lives of Your Diverse Neighbors
The religious landscape of the United States has shifted dramatically in recent years, with the arrival of new Americans from every corner of the globe and every faith tradition. If America's K-12 students are to become truly educated, fully engaged citizens of our multicultural democracy, they need to understand this rich religious diversity. The Religious Worlds of New York summer institute will contribute to such understanding by helping public, private, and parochial school teachers teach more effectively about the everyday lives of American religious communities.
The institute is a project of the Interfaith Center of New York and Union Theological Seminary, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In July of 2012, it will bring thirty teachers from throughout the United States to New York City, where they will engage with leading scholars of religious studies and a wide range of local religious leaders. The institute will introduce these teachers to six religious traditions that are part of the fabric of American life. It will help them distinguish between academic and devotional approaches to the study of religion. And it will give them the pedagogic tools they need to teach their students about "lived religion," in addition to the conventional "world religions" curriculum. This website will introduce K-12 teachers to the Religious Worlds institute, and offer them a range of resources to enrich their teaching on American religious diversity.
America's public, private, and parochial schools can play a vital role in fostering interfaith understanding. But unfortunately, too many teachers feel unprepared to teach about religious diversity. Too many Americans mistakenly believe it is unconstitutional for our public schools to teach about religion. And too many textbooks ignore the role of religion in contemporary societies, relegating it to ancient history if they address it at all. As a result, too many of our students learn little more than superficial summaries of religious doctrines -- the Five Pillars of Islam, the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, the Ten Commandments of the Hebrew Bible, and so on. These paint-by-numbers portraits of religious traditions do not convey the depth or complexity of contemporary religious life. They do not prepare our students to participate in the civic life of a pluralistic society.
Our students certainly do need to learn the essential doctrines of major religious traditions, but much more than that they need to learn about the religious lives of their diverse neighbors. They need a rigorous, academically grounded engagement with the social realities of contemporary religious communities. They need to know how their own experiences of American society may be radically different -- and not so different at all -- from the experiences of their peers living in different religious worlds.
The Religious Worlds of New York summer institute will give teachers the tools they need to teach about the everyday life of American religious diversity. The institute will thus help to transform the study of religion in American schools, and empower a new generation of Americans to bridge the divides between their religious worlds.
Credits: Skyline photo by Francisco Diez, creative commons. Street scene photos, from top to bottom, by: 1) skalis, creative commons; 2) jnap, creative commons; 3) Mat McDermott, creative commons; and 4) used by permission of Jenny Jozwiak, Diversity of Devotion.
