Critical Conversations about Religion

<p>A volume in Transforming Education for the Future</p><p>Interfaith initiatives are increasingly prevalent on college and university campuses around the<br />country. In large part this trend responds both to ongoing religious violence throughout the world<br />and to increasing religious tension in the United States. As such these interfaith initiatives often<br />attempt to bolster interfaith collaboration and increase awareness of different religious cultures<br />identities beliefs and traditions. In this book Edwards reviews the various goals and processes associated with the interfaith<br />movement and offers both warnings and suggestions for those who are interested in pursuing an approach to interfaith dialogue<br />that is oriented toward social justice. In doing so this book fills a critical gap in academic literature surrounding the impact of<br />religious identity and interfaith relations on pedagogy educational experiences and campus climates.<br />Through three descriptive case studies set in a large public university in the United States Edwards explores the use of Intergroup<br />Dialogue as a pedagogical model for interfaith dialogue. While the goal of this pedagogy is to increase student understanding of<br />privilege oppression and social injustice pertaining to religious identity the cases in this book demonstrate how and why social<br />justice oriented interfaith dialogue can be easily derailed and if so may potentially have harmful implications for religious<br />minorities. Accordingly Edwards offers five necessary conditions for assuring that social justice oriented interfaith dialogue (which<br />Intergroup Dialogue is intended to be) succeeds. By focusing on the unique perspectives<br />of four particular student participants (all of whom have religious identities outside of<br />the three dominant Abrahamic religions) Edwards also highlights the experiences of<br />those from religious identity groups that are the most overlooked and underrepresented<br />in the discourse on interfaith dialogue.</p>