The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Rev. Jonathan D. Lawrence, Ph.D.
Canisius College
Buffalo, NY
Religion in Western New York
Introduction
In this project I will map the diversity of religious communities in Buffalo and Western New York and offer a chance for people of many different faiths to describe their beliefs and practices in their own words. As part of this project, I hope to explore the following questions:
- How are the experiences of different religious communities affected by factors such as gender, immigration, economic change, and education?
- What kinds of interactions help improve relations between religious communities?
- Within a particular religion, how are internal differences understood and explained, and how visible are these differences to outsiders?
- What justifications and explanations do religious communities offer for inter-religious dialogue, especially when such dialogue challenges a tradition’s truth claims?
- How do religious diversity and interactions in Buffalo compare with experiences in other American cities?
Rationale
When I teach “Introduction to Religious Studies”, I find that my students demonstrate this mix of illiteracy and interest. They are correct that numerically “most people in Buffalo are Roman Catholic,” but they are amazed to find out that most major world religions are present in the area and that there are as many Baptist churches as Roman Catholic parishes. Many of my students and others I meet in the community express interest in learning more about other religious communities, yet they are uncomfortable visiting other houses of worship and unsure about how to find reliable information about other religions.
With this level of religious diversity in Buffalo, there are incidents of hatred or intolerance, but there is much cooperation between religious groups in the Buffalo area as well. Religious leaders have supported each other in cases of mistreatment and quickly organized an interfaith prayer service after a plane crash in February 2009. In some cases, leaders have encouraged interfaith dialogue and interaction despite criticism from members of their own congregations and traditions. These interactions follow some of the patterns described in recent works by Gustav Niebuhr and Robert Putnam and deserve further study.
This project grows out of a long personal interest in learning about other religious traditions and out of my previous research and publications concerning ancient and modern religious interactions. I have examined interactions between early Jews and Christians in terms of the context of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and the connections between Jewish ritual bathing and Christian baptism. In recent years I have explored religious interactions in India, with a focus on Hindu influences on Jewish and Christian practices. These projects have given me experience in examining the complexities of the interactions between religious groups. I would now like to apply this expertise to the religious diversity and interactions in a modern American City.
As an ordained American Baptist minister and college professor, I hear many questions from students and parishioners about religious diversity and am sensitive to the need for people of all backgrounds to understand the differences between religious traditions. While it is becoming increasingly important for Christians to learn more about non-Christian traditions, it is equally vital for Christians and non-Christians to learn about the diversity within Christianity as well. While scholars can and do write useful treatises on such matters, it is also helpful to provide opportunities for people of all faiths to describe their beliefs and practices in their own words. I believe that my dual role as clergy and teacher can help create a safe environment for people to share such stories, since I can share that I too have experienced situations where my religious statements have been twisted and misused by others. Further, as a member of the Board of Governors for the Buffalo Area Network of Religious Communities I already have relationships with leaders in many local religious communities and can find contacts in others.
Plan
During 2010-2011, I designed a blog for the first phase of the project and began compiling contact information for congregations in the Buffalo area as well as a list of other events and festivals to include in the project.
During my sabbatical in Fall 2011 I will be teaching one section of RST 399 – Religious Diversity in Buffalo, a college Core Capstone Course. As part of this course the students will film personal interviews about experiences with religious diversity and make field visits to congregations in the Buffalo area. During that time I also plan to conduct research at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society into religious interactions during earlier periods in Buffalo’s history. After my sabbatical I expect to continue offering this course every semester. Materials from students’ interviews and field visits will be posted on my blog to provide ongoing access to the project’s findings: http://religionwny.blogspot.com/.
After a year or so, I plan to reorganize the materials from the blog into a more comprehensive website about religious diversity in Buffalo. This website can then serve as a resource for community members interested in religious diversity here in Buffalo, but also as a wider resource concerning religious diversity in America. The visits and interviews will provide a basis for ongoing research examining broader factors affecting diversity and interactions here, including the economy, gender, immigration, and education.
Eventually I will also work with students and faculty in the Canisius College Video Institute to compile portions of filmed visits into a documentary suitable for distribution through PBS or other venues. I have worked with the Video Institute in the past for interviews and other projects and am confident that they will create a high-quality product. I also plan to begin a book analyzing the findings of this project.