This book argues that American colleges and universities need to enlarge their understanding of pluralism and multiculturalism by sponsoring open, challenging, spiritually and educationally revitalizing conversations among students about genuine religious difference. Although religious difference is a pivotal component of cultural pluralism, too often today it gets ignored, marginalized, or sugar-coated in higher education. Together administrators, faculty, and students must take the initiative to transform the academy into an exciting space for robust and respectful religious dialogue throughout the campus. This book offers a number of concrete examples and strategies in each chapter for achieving this objective.

With articles dealing with denomination, law, public policy and financing this anthology grants an evenhanded view of the impact of religion on our nation's public schools.

Harold Netland traces the emergence of the pluralistic ethos that challenges Christian faith and mission, interacting heavily with philosopher John Hick and providing a framework for developing a comprehensive evangelical theology of religions.

The essays in this volume offer a groundbreaking comparative analysis of religious education, and state policies towards religious education in seven different countries and in the European Union as a whole. They pose a crucial question: can religious education contribute to a shared public sphere and foster solidarity across different ethnic and religious communities? In many traditional societies and even in what are largely secular European societies, our place in creation, the meaning of good and evil, and the definition of the good life, virtue, and moral action, are all primarily addressed in religious terms. It is in fact hard to come to grips with these issues without recourse to religious language, traditions, and frames of reference. Yet, religious languages and identities divide as much as unite, and provide a site of contestation and strife as much as a sense of peace and belonging Not surprisingly, different countries approach religious education in dramatically different ways. Religious Education and the Challenge of Pluralism addresses a pervasive problem: how can religious education provide a framework of meaning, replete with its language of inclusion and community, without at the same time drawing borders and so excluding certain individuals and communities from its terms of collective membership and belonging? The authors offer in-depth analysis of such pluralistic countries as Bulgaria, Israel, Malaysia, and Turkey, as well as Cyprus - a country split along lines of ethno-religious difference. They also examine the connection between religious education and the terms of citizenship in the EU, France, and the USA, illuminating the challenges of educating our citizenry in an age of religious resurgence and global politics.

This book focuses on the problem of religious diversity, civil dialogue, and religion education in public schools, exploring the ways in which atheists, secularists, fundamentalists, and mainstream religionists come together in the public sphere, examining how civil discourse about religion fit swithin the ideals of the American political and pedagogical systems and how religious studies education can help to foster civility and toleration.

While religion can be a source of healing, peace, and reconciliation, it can also be a trigger, if not an underlying cause, for conflict between peoples of varying beliefs. With that awareness, the International Academy of Practical Theology convened its 2007 meeting around the theme of "Religion, Diversity, and Conflict." From the multiple seminars, lectures, and studies presented at that meeting, a selection was chosen for this book. Representing contributions from four continents, and drawing upon perspectives from African traditional religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, the book offers a rich introduction to the problems and promises of religion in dialogue with 21st-century diversity. Religion, Diversity and Conflict will serve as a veritable primer on the field of practical theology. (Series: International Practical Theology - Vol. 15)

«Muir offers a compelling take on the intricacies of religious pluralism in U.S. higher education. Rich portrayals of Protestant, secular, and pluralist dynamics at four unique campuses shed light on their distinctive histories and provide timely implications for leaders and educators seeking to cultivate campus environments where all can flourish.» (Alyssa Rockenbach, Professor & Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professor, North Carolina State University) «In his astute analysis of religious life on four North Carolina campuses, Scott Muir finds that, aside from a general pattern of secularization and a gradual increase in religious diversity, Protestant privilege endures, even as campuses accommodate religious pluralism. More important, the author's careful, exhaustive research and nuanced analyses of distinctive campus religious climates should make us wary of standard, one-size-fits-all narratives about the slippery slope toward secularism in the academy.» (Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College) This book illustrates how the university campus has been and continues to be a crucial space where diverse actors who embody Protestant, secular and pluralist forces negotiate the role of religion in a pluralistic society. Through comparative analysis of four distinct institutions in North Carolina's Research Triangle from the nineteenth century to the present day, we observe how campus religious climates have varied quite significantly within a single metropolitan area - all the more across the vast system of American higher education. Institutional identity factors including race, gender, geographical reach, resource disparities, and denominational affiliations have powerfully shaped the way these universities relate to their Protestant roots amidst growing religious diversity. And these universities, in turn, have accelerated the religious transformation of a region of the American South that is emblematic of widening cultural divides. Protestant Privilege andPluralism on Campus illuminates a range of challenges to achieving a substantive and inclusive dialogue about meaning and values on campus and beyond.