Resources

Building an Interfaith Community and Leadership Seminar

June 1–14, 2012 | Greater Boston

Course Overview

Through case discussion, public narrative, and site visits to local religious communities, this seminar invites theological school students from Greater Boston to develop skills for interfaith organizing and community-building. Case studies offer participants the opportunity to explore together the dilemmas at the intersection of religious and civic life and to reflect theologically on the implications of leadership in a multi-religious society. Site visits and integrative sessions with guest lecturers from the Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Jewish traditions increase multi-religious literacy. Public Narrative training sessions leverage personal experience as a tool for translating values into action.

The Building an Interfaith Community and Leadership Seminar was generously funded by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. A special thanks to guest lecturers and faith communities of Greater Boston who served as hosts, guides, and conversation partners throughout this seminar.

Primary Texts

My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth and Transformation. Peace, Rose, & Mobley eds. (Orbis 2012)
On Common Ground: World Religions in America. CD-ROM/Website. Diana Eck, The Pluralism Project, Harvard University.
Pluralism Project Case Studies (provided by instructors)

Additional Resources

  • Course Syllabus | Building an Interfaith Community and Leadership Seminar syllabus with bibliography (.pdf)
  • Directory of Interfaith Engagement Opportunities in Theological Education | Selected list of programs and resources for training religious leaders for today’s multi-religious world

Case Studies

The Pluralism Project develops case studies and explores new ways to creatively apply them to teaching and learning in the theological and religious studies classroom. The primary texts are the issues that arise in the contexts of our civil society, public life, and religious communities. In addition to discussing case studies and thereby building religious literacy, leadership capacity, and critical thinking skills, several participants crafted original case studies or “seed cases” for their final project.

Select Case Studies

  • Sign of Division | Before a joint worship service is about to begin in Sharon, Massachusetts, an interfaith leader asks the rabbi if they can remove a sign supporting Israel from the synagogue’s lobby.
  • Trouble in Troy | In Troy, Michigan, a Hindu resident challenges the city’s “Judeo-Christian” observance of the National Day of Prayer.
  • Invocation or Provocation? | A local resident who identifies as a witch asks to deliver an invocation at the Board of Supervisors meeting in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
  • Center of Dispute | Daisy Khan navigates the dispute over a planned Muslim Community Center in Lower Manhattan, which opponents call “the Ground Zero Mosque.”
  • Fliers at the Peace Parade | A pastor distributes fliers at a Sikh parade in California: to him, it is an expression of his Evangelical faith; to the Sikhs, and some other local citizens, it is an affront.
Additional Resources

Public Narrative

Marshall Ganz, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, describes public narrative as “the art of translating values into action.” He explains: “Leaders use public narrative to interpret themselves to others, engage others in a sense of shared community, and inspire others to act on challenges that community must face. It is learning to tell a story of self, a story of us, and a story of now.”1 Ganz and his team trained participants in public narrative through modeling, coaching, and reflective practice.

1. Quotes from PAL 154 Public Narrative: Identity, Agency, and Action.

Additional Resources

Site Visits

Site visits to local religious communities included integrative sessions led by guest lecturers who addressed the group’s questions as well as placed the local community into broader historical and contemporary context. Participants prepared for site visits using tradition sections from On Common Ground: World Religions in America.

Click here for the Pluralism Project’s Guidelines to Field Research.

Islam | Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (Roxbury, MA)
  • Student Reflection: Mark Kharas, Harvard Divinity School
Judaism | Temple Beth Zion (Brookline, MA)
  • Student Reflection: Najira Ahmed, Wellesley College & The Pluralism Project
Christianity | Christian communities visited individually by students (Greater Boston)
  • Student Reflection: Nancy Rottman, Andover Newton Theological School
Buddhism | Buddhist communities visited individually by students (Greater Boston)
Hinduism | Sri Lakshmi Temple (Ashland, MA)
  • Student Reflection: Betsy Tabor, Andover Newton Theological School
Sikhism | Milford Gurdwara Sahib/New England Sikh Study Circle (Milford, MA)
  • Student Reflection: Jason Smith, Harvard Divinity School

Additional Seminar Opportunities

In addition to site visits to local religious communities, seminar participants had the opportunity to reflect on leadership at the Harvard Art Museums and to hear first-hand accounts from leaders engaged in interfaith work in Greater Boston.

Museum Field Trip

Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums | Guided by staff in the Sackler Museum’s Education Department, participants were invited to reflect—as a group and as individuals—on questions of leadership, identity, and narrative by engaging with the collections and the gallery space at the Harvard Art Museums.

Panel Discussion: Models of Interfaith Cooperation | Harvard University

Leaders from key interfaith groups in the Greater Boston Area offered insights about their work in a panel discussion at Harvard University. Each panelist, with varied backgrounds in youth, college, and community interfaith work, described the challenges and opportunities of grassroots interfaith engagement. After the formal session and lunch, panelists and participants chose to reconvene in order to continue the rich conversation.

Panelists included:

Participant Experiences

Students reflect on the Seminar and its impact on their theological education and vocational goals.

“This course helped me define my own ministry better and who I am when it comes to interfaith engagement.”
“This course not only gave me tools to use and a focus for further study in my program but also tools to put to use immediately in my own community.”
“I feel that all three elements made for a well-rounded introduction to interfaith leadership and community building. I also was grateful for the Interfaith Panel and all of the collective experience represented in the room that day. As I seek to discern my place within interfaith engagement and the specifics of my call I will draw heavily on this experience and use it to help guide my choices within my program of study.”