A guide for students, groups, and organizations seeking to foster interfaith dialogue and promote understanding across religious lines In this book, renowned interfaith leader Eboo Patel offers a clear, detailed, and practical guide to interfaith leadership, illustrated with compelling examples. Patel explains what interfaith leadership is and explores the core competencies and skills of interfaith leadership, before turning to the issues interfaith leaders face and how they can prepare to solve them. Interfaith leaders seek points of connection and commonality—in their neighborhoods, schools, college campuses, companies, organizations, hospitals, and other spaces where people of different faiths interact with one another. While it can be challenging to navigate the differences and disagreements that can arise from these interactions, skilled interfaith leaders are vital if we are to have a strong, religiously diverse democracy. This primer presents readers with the philosophical underpinnings of interfaith theory and outlines the skills necessary to practice interfaith leadership today.

So you're getting married! The wedding is the most gloriously celebrated of life's rites of passage. Today couples of all faiths, colors, and cultures are choosing an interfaith ceremony for its spiritually inclusive and personal approach. It is a way of rejoicing in our differences and celebrating our commonality in an atmosphere of mutual love and respect. If yours is an interfaith, intercultural, or interracial union, then you have already embraced a love that knows no boundaries. What could be more beautiful? But now that it's time to make a public statement to the world, you may suddenly be filled with questions: How do we make sure that our ceremony is a reflection of our love and our relationship? How do we remain true to ourselves and still make our families happy? How can we create a wedding ceremony that merges our religious, spiritual, cultural, and personal beliefs? Can we do this without offending or alienating anyone? Who will officiate at our ceremony? When and where will the ceremony take place? Which rituals will we include? Joining Hands and Hearts will help you answer all of these questions and more, with a detailed questionnaire to help you learn more about yourselves and each other, practical guides to structuring an interfaith wedding ceremony, tender counsel on how to work with your families, and the most complete manual of religious, cultural, and universal rituals, prayers, vows, and blessings available. In warm, inclusive language, Reverend Susanna Macomb guides you through the most sensitive of issues with love and encouragement. She offers the stories and ceremonies of other couples to inspire you. You are not alone! Interfaith, intercultural, and interracial couples bring healing and hope for all of us. You are the future, and Joining Hands and Hearts can help you celebrate your union with all of the love, grace, and magic it deserves.

The potential of visual research methods in the sociology of religion is vast, but largely untapped. This comes as a surprise, however, given the visual, symbolic, and material nature of religion and spirituality. Evidence of religious faith and practice is materially present in everything from clothing and jewelry to artifacts found in people’s homes and workplaces. Not only is religion’s symbolic and material presence palpable throughout society, it also informs attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of countless people worldwide. Words-and-numbers approaches to social research, however, sometimes miss important dimensions of religion and spirituality in the contemporary world. Seeing Religion is an invitation to a visual sociology of religion. Contributors draw from their current research to discuss the application of visual methods to the study of religion and spirituality. Each chapter stimulates the sociological imagination through examples of research techniques, analytical approaches, and methodological concerns.

"This book arises out of a recognition that student affairs professionals have little preparation or guidance in dealing with matters of spirituality, religion, secularism, and interfaith work at a time of greater diversity in students' beliefs and, from a broad recognition, that there is a need to engage with this aspect of student life. For those who don't know how to begin and may be nervous about tackling a topic that has the potential to lead to heated disagreements, this book provides the resources and practical guidance to undertake this work. With the aim of providing student affairs practitioners and faculty with the tools they need to increase their comfort level and enable their ability to engage in discussions about belief both in and out of the classroom, the contributors provide foundational knowledge, concrete teaching ideas, sample activities, and case studies that can be used in a variety of settings. This book serves multiple audiences in student affairs by providing teaching ideas for practitioners who want to include a session or two about interfaith in their programs as well as ideas for student affairs faculty who may be teaching one session on this topic or a whole course"--

Meeting people of other faiths is an everyday experience not only for minority Christian communities in Asia and the Middle East but increasingly for Christians elsewhere. Yet although interfaith dialogue has established itself as a key concern for the churches and the ecumenical movement, it continues to raise spiritual, social, political, practical and theological concerns in many quarters. The insights in this book draw on the author's wide range of personal experiences -- as a child, student and Methodist pastor in Sri Lanka; as a participant in the controversial discussion of interfaith dialogue at the World Council of Churches' fifth assembly (Nairobi 1975); as a student of Hinduism; and especially as a longtime staff member and director of the WCC's dialogue programme. Weaving together accounts from daily life, ecumenical texts and discussions, and theological reflection, this book offers a clear and challenging introduction to key issues that arise again and again when Christians and churches enter into conversation with their neighbours of other faiths -- among them interfaith prayer, interfaith marriage, religion and conflict, and dialogue and mission.

Encourages readers to embrace religious diversity while also finding common ground with other faiths. Original.

A deeply personal journey to interfaith collaboration that offers hope for an inclusive and healing way of being together in the world. Too often religion seems to fuel more hatred than love, more conflict than collaboration. Interfaith Talk Radio's "interfaith amigos"--a pastor, a rabbi and an Imam--provide a rich understanding of the road to interfaith collaboration by sharing their stories, challenges and the inner spiritual work necessary to go beyond tolerance to a vital, inclusive spirituality. From their deep commitment and lived experience, they present ways we can work together to transcend the differences that have divided us historically. Together they explore: The five stages of the interfaith journey The power of our stories The core of our traditions The promises and problems of our traditions New dimensions of spiritual identity And much more Along with inspiring insights and encouragement for tapping into the promise of interfaith dialogue, they provide practical actions, additional readings and discussion questions to help you embody their revolutionary spirit of healing.