Resources

The author describes her participation in a religious studies teaching workshop where she was asked to think creatively about the art of teaching, what implications result from changes in the field, and the relationship of religious studies to other fields. General conclusions endorse pedagogies that are dialogic, participatory, and experiential and invite possibilities provided by changes in the field that encourage courses that are more inclusive of marginal voices and attentive to multicultural inflections. In assessing the relationship of religious studies to other fields, the author draws on her interdisciplinary background in religion and literature to apply Aristotelian rhetoric to the interpretation of a short story, thereby providing an actual model of how disciplines can complement each other while also highlighting aspects of the pedagogical and multicultural principles endorsed by the workshop participants. The application of Aristotelian principles of logos, ethos, and pathos becomes for the workshop participants a religious studies rhetoric: a provisional model for how to interpret classroom conduct.

This article reports on the findings of a study carried out with ordinands and faculty in English theological Colleges and Courses (programs). The project aimed to discover (a) how and to what extent students are trained to work in Britain's multi–faith society, and (b) how are ordinands thinking theologically about issues of religious diversity. This article highlights the examples of good practice that emerged from the study and considers what makes for good learning about multi–faith issues for ordinands training for the ministry.

Drawing on his own work in educational theory as well as his classroom experience, the author identifies important dialogical vices that he finds in his students: pride and cowardice. These vices are put both in the theoretical context of a greater understanding of the role of dialogue in learning and in the social context of the contemporary multicultural ethos from which the students come. In opposition to the vices, the author proposes dialogical virtues (humility, charity, and courage) and a concept of tolerance that help us to avoid pride and cowardice. In this way, we achieve genuine dialogue and multiculturalism and avoid what the author calls a pernicious multiculturalism

The content of Catholic social teaching suggests that an appropriate pedagogy for the teaching and learning of Catholic social thought is the teaching and learning of practical reason. This article explores the role of moral exemplars in the teaching and learning of practical reason in a Catholic university. Specifically, the article details the use of moral exemplars in the "Profiles in the Catholic Social Tradition" course taught at the University of Notre Dame in the Fall semester of 2000. After a brief explanation of the appeal to practical reason as an appropriate pedagogy for teaching and learning the content of Catholic social teaching, the article turns to a discussion of our particular experience of using moral exemplars in the classroom.

This essay describes an introductory class exercise to help prepare students to critically examine both religious beliefs and scientific findings. Using a published pedagogical exercise originally designed to teach Popperian falsificationism and modified to encompass a variety of schools of thought about hypothesis testing, the paper explores how groups of students utilized assigned philosophical approaches such as neojustificationism, falsificationism, or conventionalism. A description of the exercise and some of the learning outcomes are included.

Many faculty members reach for powerful clips or entire films to give background information to a topic or to provoke discussion. We do this because we have a sense that such materials engage students in a way that more theoretical texts, speculative discussions, or even case studies do not. In the field of ethics, however, one meets resistance to employing narratives that are too engaging. The wary ethicist doubts that a medium that manipulates the viewer, engages the emotions, and elicits a personal connection to the characters is the best resource for ethical reflection. This paper argues that film, like other narrative forms, is indeed an appropriate medium for teaching ethics and suggests methods for doing so effectively.

This essay chronicles the academic odyssey of a young professor who sets out to revise the department's Introduction to Religion course only to realize that she must first clarify her vocational commitments before she can create a teachable course. She is convinced through working with many students who express disdain or even hostility toward the subject matter that she wants to model a relationship to the subject matter that says religion matters, but is uncertain how to do this. After an autobiographical foray into her academic upbringing in active learning, the author articulates four values to model in her teaching: personal relevance, academic responsibility, ethics, and community. The author then engages current scholarship in active learning, and narrates the process of translating those four values into concrete course goals and particular assignments. The essay concludes with an assessment of teaching the revised course.

A pervasive, yet under-discussed, problem in religious studies classrooms is the presence of faith crisis. Many students face a type of cognitive dissonance when faced with the critical-analytical approach in the academic study of religion. This essay, in an open and conversational tone, addresses the learning opportunity underlying such crisis moments. The discussion begins with a delimitation of what constitutes the secular university's goals in pedagogy and research. After arguing that a reductive limitation of knowable knowledge construction is to be the focus of the university, the discussion moves to the presence of cognitive stages of development, or liminal rites of passage as analogous for explicating the learning process in which crisis moments emerge. Finally, the discussion concludes with a reflection on the coherence of reductive limitation and collaborative pedagogy.

The paper explores the impact of the change in populations, the impact of electronic communication, and the multiplicity of methodological approaches on the ethos and practices of biblical studies. It proposes a rhetorical emancipatory educational paradigm and explores its possibilities for the professional education of biblical scholars on the doctoral level. Since both college and seminary teachers are shaped in and through their doctoral studies, it is necessary to focus on doctoral education in order to address the growing recognition that the discipline of biblical studies in its present form needs to cultivate transformative intellectuals who are not only at home in the academy but also can critically intervene in the public discourses and uses of the Bible in religious communities, democratic publics, or global inter-religious relations.

Teaching music in certain seminary contexts poses particular challenges for teaching and learning. The theme of disjuncture between teacher and student in courses that aim to incorporate music in the seminary curriculum are more vital than ever before because of the extreme cultural diversity of our population and integral nature of music in the worship life of religious communities. This essay tackles the difficulties associated with teaching worship music in seminaries where there are a plurality of religious traditions represented and a host of expectations held by diverse student bodies about what connotes worship music. Topics addressed include issues concerning terminology, repertoire, pedagogical methods for teaching worship music, and current issues in church music.