Resources
For a denomination like Roman Catholicism that is canonically difficult to leave, many American Catholics are migrating beyond the institution’s immediate influence. The new religious patterns associated with this experience represent a somewhat cohesive movement influencing not just Catholicism, but the whole of North American religion. Careful examination of the lives of disaffiliating young adults reveals that their religious lives are complicated. For example, the assumption that leaving conventional religious communities necessarily results in a non-religious identity is simplistic and even, perhaps, misleading. Many maintain a religious worldview and practice. This book explores one “place” where the religiously-affiliated and religiously-disaffiliating regularly meet—Catholic secondary schools—and something interesting is happening. Through a series of ethnographic portraits of Catholic religious educators and their disaffiliating former students, the book explores the experience of disaffiliation and makes its complexity more comprehensible in order to advance the discourse of fields interested in this significant movement in religious history and practice. (From the Publisher)
The capstone course is supposed to serve as the final building block of our students’ education. Faculty in the religious studies department at Hendrix College felt the need to supplement the capstone metaphor with an additional one: “springboard.” We wanted to connect with recent trends in higher education that help students understand the ways in which they are prepared for employment and for life. To this end, we developed a senior colloquium course that integrates the various educational experiences of the students and, in partnership with our career services department, springboards them into their future lives. This article explains the process we went through and the three content areas covered in the course: intellectual autobiography, career preparation, and the research project.
A Harvard University project led by Diane Eck. For over twenty-five years, ongoing research project that engages students in studying the new religious diversity in the United States, exploring particularly the communities and religious traditions of Asia and the Middle East that have become woven into the religious fabric of the United States in the past twenty-five years. Teaching Resources: case studies, research reports, films, images, timelines and more.
Secondary level teachers and professors from various disciplines present their best advice and insights into teaching about various facets of genocide and/or delineate actual lessons they have taught that have been particularly successful with their students. (From the Publisher)
Click Here for Book Review This book supports students engaged in the study of religions by helping them understand key processes particular to the field, including bracketing and comparison, and general humanities skills, like critical thinking and close reading. The authors offer useful examples throughout the book and augment those with further exercises available online. - Molly H. Bassett, Georgia State University Studying religion in college or university? This book shows you how to perform well on your course tests and examinations, write successful papers, and participate meaningfully in class discussions. You'll learn new skills and also enhance existing ones, which you can put into practice with in-text exercises and assignments. Written by two award-winning instructors, this book identifies the close reading of texts, material culture, and religious actions as the fundamental skill for the study of religion at undergraduate level. It shows how critical analytical thinking about religious actions and ideas is founded on careful, patient, yet creative “reading” of religious stories, rituals, objects, and spaces. The book leads you through the description, analysis, and interpretation of examples from multiple historical periods, cultures, and religious traditions, including primary source material such as Matthew 6:9-13 (the Lord's Prayer), the gohonzon scroll of the Japanese new religion Soka Gakkai, and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). It provides you with typical assignments you will encounter in your studies, showing you how you might approach tasks such as reflective, interpretive or summary essays. Further resources, found on the book's website, include bibliographies, and links to useful podcasts. (From the Publisher)
One-page Teaching Tactic that sends students walking around campus to take photos that fit prompts sent by the professor using What'sApp.
The Atla Websites on Religion is a growing, selective, annotated collection of web resources for the study and teaching of religion. It’s first incarnation was on the Wabash Center website, created and maintained by Charles Bellinger.  “The Guide to Internet Resources for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion” it was often referred to as “The Internet Guide.” Atla took over development of the site in 2018.
What difference does Jesus Christ make for the way we teach the Christian faith? If he is truly God and truly human, if he reveals God to us and us to ourselves, how might that shape our approach to teaching Christian theology? Without a compelling theological vision of theological instruction and without a clear awareness of its unique goals, challenges, and temptations, our teaching will be out of joint with the subject matter, and we will waste valuable opportunities. Drawing on the work of S√∏ren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Adam Neder offers a clear and creative theological and spiritual reflection on the art of teaching the Christian faith. This concise and engaging book offers a wealth of fresh insights and practical suggestions. While addressed to teachers in academic contexts, the approach is broad enough to include anyone involved in teaching and learning Christianity. (From the Publisher)
A special issue of Teaching Theology & Religion on games and learning.
A document prepared by a committee working through the American Academy of Religion, that proposes a basic level of cultural competency that every graduate of a two- or four-year college should develop. It argues that some critical understanding about the ways in which religion shapes and is shaped by human behavior should be part of the general education of every person who receives an undergraduate degree.