Teaching World Religions without Teaching “World Religions”

Abstract

Tomoko Masuzawa and a number of other contemporary scholars have recently problematized the categories of “religion” and “world religions” and, in some cases, called for its abandonment altogether as a discipline of scholarly study. In this collaborative essay, we respond to this critique by highlighting three attempts to teach world religions without teaching “world religions.” That is, we attempt to promote student engagement with the empirical study of a plurality of religious traditions without engaging in the rhetoric of pluralism or the reification of the category “religion.” The first two essays focus on topical courses taught at the undergraduate level in self‐consciously Christian settings: the online course “Women and Religion” at Georgian Court University and the service‐learning course “Interreligious Dialogue and Practice” at St. Michael's College, in the University of Toronto. The final essay discusses the integration of texts and traditions from diverse traditions into the graduate theology curriculum more broadly, in this case at Loyola Marymount University. Such confessional settings can, we suggest, offer particularly suitable – if somewhat counter‐intuitive – contexts for bringing the otherwise covert agendas of the world religions discourse to light and subjecting them to a searching inquiry in the religion classroom.

Teaching Comparative Theology from an Institution's Mission

“…The objectives, reading material, and overall design for “World Religions: In Dialogue” were inspired by Reid B. Locklin, Tracy Tiemeier, and Johann M. Vento's essay “Teaching World Religion without Teaching ‘World Religions.’ ” The authors advocate course designs that “promote student engagement with the questions and empirical study of a plurality of religious traditions without, insofar as possible, engaging in the rhetoric of pluralism or the reification of the category ‘religion' ” (Locklin et al. , 160). Students in my course encounter the “major” world religions in conjunction with investigating the central teachings and doctrines of Christianity.…”

“…Service learning is “a form of activist pedagogy, connecting the university to human needs in the wider community and aiming for long‐term transformations in students' career choices, civic engagement, and democratic participation” (Locklin et al. , 167). Studies have shown it to be beneficial in sharpening students' abilities in moral reasoning (Boss ), enhancing their understanding of complicated social problems (Batchelder and Root ), and increased tolerance across religious and racial boundaries (Myers‐Lipton ).…”

“…Reid Locklin details the positive intersections of service learning and world religions, and he outlines an increase not only in personal investment in questions of religious diversity but also an enhanced process of reflection that is “more critical, informed, and self‐reflexive” (Locklin et al. , 166).…”

“…Not unlike turning to service learning as a pedagogical resource, see Locklin et al. (, 165‐170) and Grace (, 105).…”

Teaching Religion to Undergraduates in the 2020s: A Preliminary Reconnaissance

“…This way of looking at introductory courses suggests that it is not specific material, such as the frequently critiqued survey of world religions, or even theories and methods specific to a discipline or subdiscipline, that need to constitute the focus and substance of an introductory course in the study of religion (see Locklin et al 2012;Gray-Hildenbrand and King 2019). It is rather a set of problems and questions and a range of opportunities to practice posing and answering them that should constitute the topics focus for introductory courses.…”