The Pluralism Project has terrific short essays for each religion, all suitable for student assignments. Click on Confucianism, for example, and you will see several essays about Confucianism today. Another essay reviews the growing popularity, or revival, of Confucianism.
Harvard Divinity School's Religious Literacy Project offers a terrific overview of the methodology we should use to study religion. I copied and adapted much of this methodology for my elective course. The methodology comes for Professor Diane Moore. Director, Religious Literacy Project and Senior Lecturer on Religious Studies and Education at Harvard.
Moore's basic thesis is based on three assumptions about religion:
- They are internally diverse
- They evolve and change over time
- religious influences are embedded in our culture.
Study.com is an online platform of academic lessons based on 5 to 8 minute video clips. You have to create a teacher account and pay a monthly fee for which you can hopefully get your school to pay. Their courses on Religion 101, with chapters on each of the major religions, is terrific. Usually, college professors narrate the videos which all use animation. After viewing, students take and retake a five question quiz.
Once you set up an account, you send your students a code so they can enroll in your class. You can then assign them specific videos, or even entire chapters. Study.com records their results so you can see them by student. Thisyear the monthly cost was $29.
I love the videos and think they provide students with excellent background on the basic beliefs and history of the the major religions.
Once you set up an account, you send your students a code so they can enroll in your class. You can then assign them specific videos, or even entire chapters. Study.com records their results so you can see them by student. Thisyear the monthly cost was $29.
I love the videos and think they provide students with excellent background on the basic beliefs and history of the the major religions.
Generation Global is an education organization that puts together students from different cultures to discuss issues relating to religion and culture through online video conferences.
It was started by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and offers several different kinds of conferences for students. Some are based on United Nations international days and others are based on culture and religion and include topics like festivals, the environment, and wealth and poverty. Sometimes Generation Global tackles current issues and brings in important experts. Last year, for example, we participated in a conference on equality before the law and speakers included Mary Tinker, the free speech advocate who went to court over wearing an armband in support of a truce in the Viet Nam War and the grandson of Cesar Chavez, the civil rights activist and labor leader. My religion classes have participated in many conferences over the lat five years. Voice of America filmed one conference with Indonesia two years ago and did a video news story which you can see here. |
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- (Henry Goldschmidt, “Chapter 7: Teaching Lived Religion Through Literature: Classroom Strategies for Community-Based Learning” in Haynes, Charles C., ed. Teaching about Religion in the Social Studies Classroom.
- American Academy of Religion, Guidelines for Teaching about Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the U.S. published by the American Academy of Religion.
- Benjamin Marcus, “Chapter 1: Teaching About Religion in Public Schools,” in Haynes, Charles C., ed. Teaching about Religion in the Social Studies Classroom.
- “Religious Identity Formation,” Religious Freedom Center, accessed March 17, 2022, https://www.religiousfreedomcenter.org/grounding/identity/.
National Geographic's series, The Story of God, hosted by Morgan Freeman, has some excellent episodes suitable for class. For example, one episode called The Chosen One, explores the founders of various religions from the current leader of the Lakota to a young Minnesota boy believed to be the reincarnation of an important Buddhist llama.
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The CBC series, Little Mosque on the Prairie, is an excellent sit-com about Muslims in a fictional town in Mercy, Saskatchewan. It features a young Imam who has just moved to the town and confronts many stereotypes in a humorous way.
Not all episodes are suitable for the classroom but a few certainly are and help students to see Muslims as ordinary citizens. Here's the 20 minute first episode which aired in 2006. You'll meet the town's new Imam, Amaar Rashid.
Here is a review from the New York Times.
You can stream the first episode here.
Not all episodes are suitable for the classroom but a few certainly are and help students to see Muslims as ordinary citizens. Here's the 20 minute first episode which aired in 2006. You'll meet the town's new Imam, Amaar Rashid.
Here is a review from the New York Times.
You can stream the first episode here.
- Buddhism – “The Little Buddha“: Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, 1993.
- Christianity – “A History of Christianity“: Written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, 2009
- Hinduism – “Sanjay Superteam“: Directed by Sanjay Patel, 2015.
- Islam – “Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story“: Directed by Robert Gardner, 2014.
- Judaism – “Fiddler on the Roof“: Directed by Norman Jewison, 1971.
- Shinto – “Spirited Away“: Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, 2001.
- Sikhism – Kaur Foundation – Cultural Safari & Sikh Kid to Kid
- Traditional religion – “The Book of Life“: Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez, 2014
Hala in the Family is a sit com web-series about an all-American Muslim family. Its aims to combat bias and misconceptions about Islam. Most episodes runabout 5 minutes.
BBC developed IWonder interactive guides in 2014. The guides "explore a range of factual and education topics from Science and Natural History, Arts, History, Religion and Ethics, Food and more."
They are colorful, interactive, and easy to read and often include short video and audio clips, infographics, and excellent written summaries.
The IWonder guides that deal with religion are terrific.
They are colorful, interactive, and easy to read and often include short video and audio clips, infographics, and excellent written summaries.
The IWonder guides that deal with religion are terrific.
- Hinduism: Why do Hindus celebrate god as a woman
- Buddhism: Why do Buddhist Meditate
- Buddhism: The Life of the Buddha: a Spiritual Journey
- Islam: Sunnis & Shias, What's the Difference
- Islam: Why do Millions Gather in Mecca every year?
- Islam: Ramadan 2015, What do I need to Know
- Christianity: Why didn't Christianity die out in the 1st century?
- Christianity: When is Easter?
- Christianity: How did St. Patrick become a global saint?
- Sikhism: The Gurus and warriors of the Sikh kingdom
- Sikhism: Could you be the next Sikh warrior
- Judaism: Why did ordinary people commit atrocities in the Holocaust
- Baha’i: CaCan a religion accept other faiths as true?
- General Religion: Are we wired to believe in a higher power?
BBC Two made a series of short documentaries about some of the major religious traditions called My Life, My Religion. Each documentary is about twenty-eight minutes long and is shown through the eyes of a young teenager. The Hindu teenager is 14 years old, and the Christian and Muslim teenagers are 11 years old.
The religious traditions included in the series are the three Abrahamic traditions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as Hinduism, and Sikhism. I could only find three of them on You Tube--Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, which you can see below.
The documentaries are ideal for middle school and high school students.
The religious traditions included in the series are the three Abrahamic traditions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as Hinduism, and Sikhism. I could only find three of them on You Tube--Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, which you can see below.
The documentaries are ideal for middle school and high school students.
After a field trip to a house of worship, students might write a reflection with the guidelines below.
Write a two-page typed paper (double-spaced, 12 point type) describing your actual experience visiting a worship service or spiritual observance.
Describe:
Write a two-page typed paper (double-spaced, 12 point type) describing your actual experience visiting a worship service or spiritual observance.
Describe:
- The service/ observance you attended, the date and time, physical address/ location, officiates and participants in the ceremony.
- Describe the physical space, its decorations and significance
- Symbolic objects and their significance
- Readings /scriptures and their significance
- Chants or songs and their significance
- Describe the response of the worshipers / participants (were they engaged / listless/ happy/sad, etc.)
- How did the experience impact you? (your impressions/ emotions)
Here's a link to a column I wrote for PBS about teaching religion along with the podcast below.
BBC Two has a terrific series about religion hosted by Pete Owen Jones called Around the World in 80 Faiths. You can stream the eight episodes here at Daily Motion and here is a link to the episode guide. Each episode focuses on a specific country or region like the Middle East or Australia and Pacific Ring of Fire.
Owen Jones is a Owen-Jones is an English Anglican priest and has hosted a number of documentaries about religion including "How to Live a Simple Life" and "Extreme Pilgrim: Aesthetic Christianity"
Owen Jones is a Owen-Jones is an English Anglican priest and has hosted a number of documentaries about religion including "How to Live a Simple Life" and "Extreme Pilgrim: Aesthetic Christianity"
- Pew Templeton does a lot of research on religion around the world. The Future Religious Project explores how the religious profiles are changing. They attempt to answer questions like these:
Is the number of religiously unaffiliated people increasing?
How to use the Global Religious Futures website
Learn more about the Pew-Templeton project
You'll find graphs, charts, and data bases including religious profiles for countries around the world.
Students could do a a lot of research on different topics using the site.
Huston Smith is one of the 20th century's foremost authorities on religion. His chapters don't read like a textbook but like a narrative. I sometimes assign chapters, especially the one on oral religions.
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I use an older edition of Fisher's textbook which I think is quite good. I stopped giving it out to students to take home and instead use it as a classroom resource. Most of my students will not read it at home anyway.
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Another book that I like a lot is God is not One by Stephen Prothero. It's a mass market paperback so students could buy a copy or maybe the school might buy a set.
Prothero argues that religions are quite different and that we are doing a disservice when we suggest that the different religions simply offer different paths to the same god. Prothero also made a series of short videos explaining the problem that each religion confronts. The series is called World Religions 101 and was produced in 2014 with Interfaith Voices and host, Maureen Fiedler. Prothero outlines the the central problem each religion defines and the solution it offers. For example, he notes that exile is the problem in Judaism and argues that the solution is return "through storytelling and the law." The Bible and its Influence
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My World Religion Blog offers videos and resources for teaching religion that might be useful. It includes posts about video conferences with Generation Global, and some of the challenges in teaching religion. You can search the blog by religion.
Prothero
Word Relgions: A Voyage of Discovery
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Prof. Kristian Petersen, a professor of religious Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, has an interesting survey semester syllabus of World Religions. He has links to some interesting sites and readings.
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Jack Shaheen, the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, spent much his life exposing what he considers racist and dangerous distortions of Arabs and Muslims. Over the past 40 years, he’s addressed the topic in three books, in a documentary, on two Hollywood film sets and in countless news interviews. Here's Reel bad Arabs
Click to set custom HTML
GHere are a series of training videos for the Chicago Police Department about individual religions. They include Hinduism, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Islam. Graduate student Kate Soule suggested that it might be valuable to have students evaluate how well these videos discuss internal diversity, change over time, & embeddedness in culture. You can see the videos below.
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Muslim Heritage is a terrific website It "is a British not-for-profit, non-political, and non-religious organisation founded in 1999 by a group of philanthropic historians, scientists, engineers and social scientists. It is dedicated to researching and popularising the history of pre-Renaissance civilisations, especially the Muslim civilisation, that have had an impact upon the scientific, technological and cultural heritage of our modern world.
FSTC is the world’s leading producer of educational material dedicated to the history of science within Muslim culture and civilisation. It researches this material drawing upon a diverse pool of scientists, engineers, historians and social scientists from the world’s leading universities, museums and centres of learning."
FSTC is the world’s leading producer of educational material dedicated to the history of science within Muslim culture and civilisation. It researches this material drawing upon a diverse pool of scientists, engineers, historians and social scientists from the world’s leading universities, museums and centres of learning."
BBC Radio 4, In Our Time has a terrific segment on Shintoism and another on Daoism. Both run about 45 minutes. |
Facing History has terrific series of articles about religion, immigration and belonging. The Cricket Test is particularly interesting essay with great possibilities for discussion. If you are an immigrant and cannot root for the home team, are you really a citizen?
PRIMARY SOURCES
National Constitution Center - Interactive Constitution
National Archives
-Educator Resources
-America's Founding Documents
Library of Congress
-Digital Collections
-Primary Source Sets
Digital Public Library of America - Online Exhibits
CUNY Graduate Center and George Mason University - Many Pasts, from the History Matters project
Yale Law School - The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
HISTORY REVIEWIf you want to review the broader historical context around the religious liberty events we are discussing this course, the following sites provide a rich set of resources on topics in American and World history.
Crash Course (PBS Digital Studios):
US History and Government and Politics
World History 1 and World History 2
Digital History Reader (Virginia Tech)
-includes 10 modules on US history and 6 modules on European history
Khan Academy
US History and World History
AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Resources for more information about American Religious History:
Divining America - National Humanities Center
National Constitution Center - Interactive Constitution
National Archives
-Educator Resources
-America's Founding Documents
Library of Congress
-Digital Collections
-Primary Source Sets
Digital Public Library of America - Online Exhibits
CUNY Graduate Center and George Mason University - Many Pasts, from the History Matters project
Yale Law School - The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
HISTORY REVIEWIf you want to review the broader historical context around the religious liberty events we are discussing this course, the following sites provide a rich set of resources on topics in American and World history.
Crash Course (PBS Digital Studios):
US History and Government and Politics
World History 1 and World History 2
Digital History Reader (Virginia Tech)
-includes 10 modules on US history and 6 modules on European history
Khan Academy
US History and World History
AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Resources for more information about American Religious History:
Divining America - National Humanities Center