Interfaith Grit: How Uncertainty Will Save Us

This book is meant for every family member colleague and airplane seatmate who has asked me a variation of the following question: Why is the world like this? What can I do? Being human is a messy endeavor. We are made to be in relationship--built for community craving to be known and seen and heard better together. And yet some flaw in us allows us to dwell on difference and allows diversity to become divisiveness. We fear the unknown. We resist the new. We turn strident and hateful when made to change. Why is this? I believe that leaning into the unknown is a transformative skill. We can practice becoming okay with difference. We can become virtuosic at embracing the unknown. When we learn that diversity will indeed transform us--body soul and nation--we can systematically name teach and celebrate the practices that help us persevere in shaky places. Interfaith Grit is a ground-breaking and much needed book. With it Varnon-Hughes has addressed a growing lacuna by bringing pertinent educational psychology to bear on interreligious education. It will undoubtedly spark much needed investigation in this area. It is also unusually engaging for a serious work and her examples of the awkwardness of interfaith interactions had me nodding in agreement. --Jerry D. Campbell President Emeritus Claremont Lincoln University Interfaith Grit is one of my new go to texts to recommend to colleagues and students engaged in interfaith education. Not only does Stephanie Varnon-Hughes have impressive skills as an educator and as a scholar but she brings a deep passion to the task of building mutually enriching relationships across religious differences. At its best this book will evoke the stories and reflect the practice needed to create transformative interfaith engagement. This book is an invaluable resource for students faculty interfaith activists and theological educators everywhere. --Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook Claremont School of Theology Stephanie Varnon-Hughes is the director of Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Programs at Claremont Lincoln University and an award-winning teacher and interfaith leader whose research interests include the history theories and practices of interreligious education. She was a cofounder and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Interreligious Studies a peer reviewed journal and its sister publication State of Formation an online forum for emerging religious and ethical leaders.