Teaching, Religion, Politics

Welcome to the new blog series, “Teaching, Religion, Politics.” 

Current events have pressed the conversation about teaching religion and politics to the foreground in many classrooms across higher education. The Wabash Center is seeking to be responsive to the need for faculty conversation about this topic and to provide resources for teaching religion and politics in contemporary higher education classrooms. 

Over the course of the next year, weekly blog posts from a team of more than fifteen writers will address this topic. We look forward to their posts and encourage comments and conversations about "Teaching, Religion, Politics.” 

Check this site weekly for updates. Sign up for email alerts or follow us on Twitter and Facebook to receive announcements of new postings.

If you would like to write for this blog series, please contact Dr. Paul Myhre, [email protected]. 

 

Check it out!

Our blogs are now housed on our new Wabash Center website: https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/blog/ Read more →

Check it out!

Our blogs are now housed on our new Wabash Center website: https://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/resources/blog/ Read more →

Trump, Democracy, and Empire

Kwok Pui-lan
William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality
Episcopal Divinity School

On election night last year when Donald Trump won the presidential election, I was traveling in Greece visiting the historical and religious sites. Several days before the election, I visited the Acropolis and climbed up Mars Read more →

The Pedagogical Failure Of Eurocentric Methodologies

Miguel A. De La Torre
Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies
Iliff School of Theology

I am convinced that all eurocentric philosophical thought and movements – yes all – are oppressive to those who come from colonized spaces. When I contemplate every philosophical contribution made by the so-called Age Read more →

Teaching Dual Nationalism: A Pedagogy of Displacement

Rebekka King
Assistant Professor
Middle Tennessee State University

As an anthropologist of religion, I have advocated that the skills one develops in an ethnographic setting are necessarily translated to the classroom. I’m a proponent of creating a space for students to serve as experts and to speak to their own. Read more →

Power to the Pupil, Power to the People! On Teaching Democracy

Nancy Lynne Westfield
Associate Professor of Religious Education
Drew University Theological School

The car service arrived at my house. I grabbed my purse, suitcase, and briefcase and hurried out the door making sure it was locked behind me. As scheduled, we stopped to pick up a colleague who was also Read more →

Tough Conversations, Safety, and Making Mistakes in Sacred Space

Randy Woodley
Distinguished Professor of Faith and Culture
George Fox University and Portland Seminary

Allow me to be honest. There are few things in my job that I dislike more than having a conversation with someone who is feigning objectivity or neutrality. I call it academic pretense. I cherish conversations. Read more →

A Moving Syllabus

Mindy McGarrah Sharp
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Ethics
Phillips Theological Seminary

What do you know to be true now that you used to think was false? What do you know to be false now that you used to think was true? What is something you’ve always thought true Read more →

Managing Heated Debate on Politics and Religion

Teresa Delgado
Director, Peace and Justice Studies
Associate Professor and Chair, Religious Studies Department
Iona College

Earlier this semester, a number of faculty on our campus organized a “teach-in” to address growing concerns over the Trump administration’s recent executive orders and presidential leadership. Entitled, “Freedom from Fear: American Democracy in.. Read more →

Teaching About the Politics of Religion and Social Change

Dean J. Johnson
Director Peace & Conflict Studies
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
West Chester University

Every time I walk into a classroom or workshop for the first time, I hear the voices of elders in the long, Black-led struggle for justice pressing the questions: “How are you going to Read more →