Informing the Pedagogical Practice of Interreligious Education: Critical Social Science Directions

  1. 1.St. Francis Xavier UniversityAntigonishCanada
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the International Handbooks of Religion and Education book series (IHRE, volume 4)

Abstract

Using critically reflexive practice, the author offers an approach to interreligious dialogue that assumes a first step that precedes the meeting with persons of different faiths. This approach asks that religious education begin with a critical examination of current programs and practices in Religious Education (e.g., RCIA, lay ministry education) and ask of them (a) to what degree are they accepting of difference? (b) to what degree do they exist in a climate of openness and critical reflexivity? and (c) what are our practices and theories of difference even among ourselves? The author intends this critical self-examination – using educational tools such as journaling, critical reflection, curriculum analysis, autobiography – to be the crucial building block for further interreligious dialogue. Once we begin with our own narratives and perspectives, we can determine our strengths as well as potential challenges in dialogue. This chapter will focus on specific cases of RE and suggest specific strategies and questions that we can ask of them.

Keywords

Gender Power Curriculum Null curriculum Rite of Christian initiation of adults Lay ministry Postfoundationalism Postmodernism Postcolonialism Poststructuralism Feminist theory Critical theory Critical pedagogy Voice Binaries Difference 

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