Home » Resources » Scholarship on Teaching » Religious Pluralism in the Academy: Opening the Dialogue
Scholarship
March 29, 2017
Religious Pluralism in the Academy: Opening the Dialogue
- Author
- Nash, Robert J.
- Publisher
- Peter Lang, New York, NY
- ISBN
- 082045592x
- Table of Contents
-
Acknowledgments
ch. 1 The Cry for Meaning
Taking the World by the Throat
Taking the Plunge
Student Affairs Professionals: The "Hidden Educators"
Overcoming Fear
Three Objectives in Writing This Book
My Preliminary Credo
Organization of the Book
A Note on Use of Resources
Definitions of Several Key Terms
ch. 2 The Paradox of Religious Pluralism
The Reality of Religious Pluralism on College Campuses: Promise or Peril?
Is Conflict Among Religious Groups Inevitable?
The Paradox of Religious Pluralism
Bounded Versus Unbounded Discourse
When Should Intolerance Replace Tolerance?
Toward Unbounded Dialogue
ch. 3 Religions as Narratives (I): Three Mainstream Stories
The Indispensability of Stories
Narrative Construals of Reality
Six Types of Religious Stories That College Students Tell
Three Mainstream Stories
The Orthodoxy Narrative
The Wounded Belief Narrative
The Mainline Narrative
ch. 4 Religions as Narratives (II): Three Alternative Stories
Three Alternative Stories That Students Tell
The Activism Narrative
The Exploration Narrative
The Secular Humanism Narrative
ch. 5 The Role of Religion in Fostering Values on a Secular Campus
"I Am Comfortable Talking About Values...Not Religion"
Learning About Earning Is Not What College Is All About
It Is Neither Possible Nor Desirable to Decouple Religion and Values
An Example of Coupling Values and Religion in a Colloquium
We Are All Values Educators
The Nineteenth-Century Capstone Seminar
Is the American Professoriate Actually Religio-Phobic?
My Captone Seminar on Religion and Values
A Personal Memorandum to My Students on the Capstone
ch. 6 One Group, Many Truths: Constructing a Moral Conversation
"I'm Afraid to Open My Mouth in There for Fear of Getting Killed!"
Moral Conversation Versus Adversarial Discourse
Six Principles of Moral Conversation
Are College Students Developmentally Ready for Moral Conversation?
Establishing a Culture of Dialogue on College Campuses
The Widespread Yearning for Consoling Narratives of Meaning
Bibliography
Index
This book argues that American colleges and universities need to enlarge their understanding of pluralism and multiculturalism by sponsoring open, challenging, spiritually and educationally revitalizing conversations among students about genuine religious difference. Although religious difference is a pivotal component of cultural pluralism, too often today it gets ignored, marginalized, or sugar-coated in higher education. Together administrators, faculty, and students must take the initiative to tranform the academy into an exciting space for robust and respectful religious dialogue throughout the campus. This book offers a number of concrete examples and strategies in each chapter for achieving this objective. (From the Publisher)