Critical Perspectives on Interreligious Education <UN> Currents of Encounter Studies in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations Editor in Chief Marianne Moyaert (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Editorial Board Catherine Cornille (Boston College, usa) – Marion Grau (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Norway) – Paul Hedges (ntu, Singapore) – Henry Jansen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) – Bagus Laksana (Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia) – Willie L. van der Merwe (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) – Jonathan Tan (Case Western Reserve University, usa) Founding Editors Jerald D. Gort Hendrik M. Vroom (†) Advisory Board Gavin d’Costa (University of Bristol, Department of Religion and Theology) Lejla Demiri (University of Tubingen, Center for Islamic Theology) Nelly van Doorn- Harder (Wake Forest University School of Divinity) Jim Heisig (Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture) Mechteld Jansen (Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam) Edward Kessler (Woolf Institute and Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge) Oddbjorn Leirvik (University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology) Hugh Nicholson (Loyola University Chicago, Department of Theology) Anant Rambachan (St. Olaf College, Northfield, usa) John Sheveland (Gonzaga University) Mona Siddiqui (University of Edingburgh, School of Divinity) Pim Valkenberg (Catholic University of America) Michelle Voss Roberts (Wake Forest University School of Divinity) Ulrich Winkler (University of Salzburg, Center for Intercultural Theology and the Study of Religions) volume 63 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/coe <UN> Critical Perspectives on Interreligious Education Experiments in Empathy By Najeeba Syeed Heidi Hadsell leiden | boston <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecom mons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Cover illustration: Turquoise Mosaic on a wall of Jameh Mosque in Yazd, Iran. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2020934992 Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0923-6201 ISBN 978-90-04-42002-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-90-04-42004-5 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by the Authors. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> Contents Introduction: Developing Pedagogies of Interreligious Understanding 1 Judith A. Berling 1 Teaching African American Religious Pluralism 13 Monica A. Coleman 2 Interreligious Learning as Monotheist Imperative 33 Reuven Firestone 3 Interreligious Education: Transnational and Trans-Spiritual Identity Formation in the Classroom 46 Christine J. Hong 4 Reflections on Islamic Studies in an Interreligious Context 66 Munir Jiwa 5 Interreligious Education at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: A View from the Jewish Edge 86 Nancy Fuchs Kreimer 6 Integrating Vision: Comparative Theology as the Quest for Interreligious Wisdom 100 John Thatamanil 7 Reflections in the Waves: What Interreligious Studies can Learn from Women’s Movements in the U.S. 125 Rachel S. Mikva 8 God’s Mercy is Broader Than This: Theological Sensibilities and Interreligious Theological Education 158 Timur Yuskaev 9 An Evangelical/Pentecostal Approach to Interfaith Education for Seminarians and University Students 174 Tony Richie <UN> vi Contents 10 Religious Self, Religious Other: Coformation as a Model for Interreligious Education 201 Jennifer Howe Peace 11 A Ministry/Khilāfa of Radical Kinship: The Theological Educator and Student as Interreligious Ally 220 Scott C. Alexander Conclusion 243 Heidi Hadsell Index 247 <UN> Introduction Developing Pedagogies of Interreligious Understanding Judith A. Berling The essays in this volume were developed in conversations over a period of years by participants in a project on “Interreligious Education and Pedagogy.” Project participants shared their own experiences of developing and evaluat- ing interreligious programs, their successes and their frustrations. They learned from and with one another, and several of them participated in panels at pro- fessional associations or contributed essays to volumes on interreligious peda- gogies. They sought out conversations with educators and essays by faculty from institutions and backgrounds beyond their own. The project also sponsored a research report mapping the current state of interreligious learning in theological schools and seminaries. The report ex- panded upon the contributions of project participants with a thorough review of published literature and in-person or online interviews with faculty from a wider group of institutions. Each institution has had its own distinctive jour- ney of challenges and opportunities, which has shaped its approach/es to interreligious education. That report is soon to be posted on the website of the gtu. This brief chapter will reflect on the pedagogical issues and implications of the essays in this volume, informed by the broader research of the project. 1 Overcoming the Obstacle of Monotheistic Exclusivism This volume, and the project which developed it, focused primarily on theo- logical schools and seminaries, and primarily on Christian, Jewish, and Muslim programs of interreligious education. Given that focus, initiatives in interreli- gious education had to break free from historic constraints against positive views of other religions, constraints that are deeply embedded in the main- stream histories of these three great traditions. Reuven Firestone’s essay ad- dresses this issue head-on, exploring how the historical rise of monotheism positioned monotheistic religions to argue against and/or condemn other © Judith A. Berling, ���� | doi:10.1163/97890044�0045_00� This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-Nd 4.0 License. <UN> 2 Berling religions. But he goes on to argue that in the post-enlightenment era, some educated adherents of monotheistic religions have become increasingly aware that their tradition is embedded in rich cultural diversity, a vast array of differ- ent knowledges, and many sophisticated religions. In his view, and given that awareness, it is important for students, especially seminary students, to recog- nize that as powerful and authentic as their own tradition is, it does not con- tain all knowledge or wisdom. Learning something of the wisdom of other tra- ditions not only cultivates appropriate spiritual humility (there is always more to learn of God’s revelation), but also gives rise to questions that it may be important—even vital—to ask of their own tradition. He thus makes a case for exposure (a course, perhaps) to help establish the need and appetite for life- long learning of theological students. Firestone makes an excellent case for the “exposure” approach to interreli- gious education: adding a course, or a text, or a speaker about “another tradi- tion” to help students recognize that the worldview that has shaped them is not inevitable, or the only option: that there are many approaches to the search for religious truth. This exposure model is very often an institution’s first step toward interreligious education, and it is still prevalent, though the experienc- es of this volume’s authors have led most of them to go beyond this model. Tony Richie’s arguments for a Pentecostal/Evangelical approach to interreli- gious education also deals directly with the resistance of many in his denomi- nation. He, like some other Pentecostal and Evangelical theologians, seeks to maintain a strong commitment to high Christology and missiology with an openness to dialogue and interreligious education and relationships. These theologians turn to pneumatology (the Holy Spirit) to argue that Christ and God are not bound by the institutional church, but are at work everywhere, including in and through other religions. And they build on Pentecostalism’s commitment to an affective experience of God and to lived Christianity as the goal of education to argue for an interreligious educational approach that leads Pentecostals out into the interreligious world to work alongside many others, including allies from other religions, against secularism and oppression of the marginalized. Given the history