science

Interreligious studies

Interreligious studies is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Interreligious studies rather than just read about it. In short: Interreligious studies, also called interfaith studies, is the interdisciplinary academic field that researches and teaches about interfaith dialogue diplomacy international relations, and development cooperation without resorting to proselytism. It was developed as the sociological continuation of the efforts on the fields of theology, theopoetics, religious studies, atheology, civil religion, peace studies, and fr…

Key takeaways

Interreligious studies belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Interreligious studies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Interreligious studies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Interreligious studies, also called interfaith studies, is the interdisciplinary academic field that researches and teaches about interfaith dialogue diplomacy international relations, and development cooperation without resorting to proselytism. It was developed as the sociological continuation of the efforts on the fields of theology, theopoetics, religious studies, atheology, civil religion, peace studies, and freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) law studies. This academic discipline is relevant for its evidence-based scientific method for the rule of law social development of interfaith nonviolence peace culture, humanitarian aid, social services international non-governmental organizations, cultural diplomacy, and civil rights policymaking, multi-religious literacy, and interfaith education.

It was even recognized by the United Nations Education Science Culture Organization (UNESCO) through its foundation of the UNITWIN Network for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Intercultural Understanding (IDIU). The Institute for Global Engagement (IGE) has reiterated the value of the cathedra for international relations with the publishing of the Interfaith on the World Stage special edition of The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

History

In 1893 the Parliament of the World's Religions (PoWR) held the first World's Congress of Religion in the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1900 the first International Congress for the History of Religions was held in Paris. In 1903 the Religious Education Association (REA) was founded. In 1964 the Holy See founded its Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue with its Pontifical universities in Rome.

In 1973 the Scarboro Missions was founded by the Catholic Church in Canada and developed the first series of interfaith policies and open educational resources (OER) which are still a standard in the area. In 1990 the Arigatou international Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) was founded to research interreligious studies education possibilities for kids. In 1996 Diana L. Eck co-founded the Pluralism Project at the Harvard University with Robert Wuthnow and Robert D. Putnam and the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation started offering ordination-based training in interfaith ministry in the United Kingdom.

In 1997 the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) was founded. In 2002 Eboo Patel founded the Interfaith Youth Core (IYC) that developed multifaith space and chaplaincy groups in universities. He coined the name Interreligious / Interfaith Studies name for the area in the seminal book of the same name that founded the area officially. In 2005 the European Society for Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies (ESITIS) was founded.

In 2009 the Journal for Inter-Religious Studies (IJRS) was founded. In 2011 the Search for Common Ground developed the Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites and the Future for Religious Heritage (FRH) was also founded. In 2012 the KAICIID Dialogue Centre founded the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities (JLIF&LC). In 2013 the Interfaith and Interreligious Studies Group was founded at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the United States Department of State.

In 2017 due to the international growth of interfaith academic programs Jennifer Howe Peace founded the Association for Interreligious / Interfaith Studies (AIIS) which convenes annual meetings. It was pivotal to allow the University of Wales first doctoral programme in the area. In 2021 the Hartford Theological Seminary founded in 1883 became the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. In 2022 the Frankfurt–Tel Aviv Center for the Study of Religious and Interreligious Dynamics was launched by the Israeli Tel Aviv University and the German Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2022 the Teachers College of the Columbia University founded the International Interfaith Laboratory (Interfaith Lab). In 2023 Hannah J. Visser organized a seminal research on the field's bibliography.

Definitions "Interreligious Studies addresses the increasing societal and economic need for interreligious competence. Courses provide students with a comprehensive appreciation of issues which impact or inhibit the peaceful co-existence of varied religions, and equip students with an understanding of how interreligious understanding might be achieved." - Heidelberg University. "Interfaith initiatives are seen as promising sites for societal change and personal transformation; however, many questions about the actual outcomes of such initiatives have remained unanswered." - University of Amsterdam School of Religion and Theology. "Interreligious studies is a subdiscipline of religious studies that engages in the scholarly and religiously neutral description, multidisciplinary analysis, and theoretical framing of the interactions of religiously different people and groups, including the intersection of religion and secularity. It examines these interactions in historical and contemporary contexts, and in relation to other social systems and forces. Like other disciplines with applied dimensions, it serves the public good by bringing its analysis to bear on practical approaches to issues in religiously diverse societies." - Kate McCarthy. "Interreligious studies is everything that religious studies cannot be, the analysis of relations the common values to religious traditions. What they have in common, not their identity traces." - United Religions Initiative (URI) director William E. Swing.

Areas of Study International relations diplomacy and cultural diplomacy. Interfaith marriage. Interfaith workers justice. Interreligious organisations. Religious diplomacy. Religious law. Religious persecution and religious war peacemaking. Religious studies. Religious psychology. Religious humanism. Religious philosophies. Religious heritage, including sacred natural sites and religious art. Religious experience. Civil religion. Ireligion Studies. Anthropology of religion. Religious advocacy groups. Multifaith spaces. Religious education and religious literacy. Coloniality and Decoloniality studies. Chaplaincy.

Controversies

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

UNESCO UNITWIN Network for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Intercultural Understanding (IDIU) logo.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Interreligious studies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Interreligious studies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Interreligious studies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Interreligious studies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Interreligious studies

In research: Interreligious studies appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Interreligious studies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Interreligious studies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic disciplines, Religious studies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Interreligious studies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Interreligious studies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Interreligious studies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Interreligious studies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Interreligious studies in simple terms?

Why does Interreligious studies matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Interreligious studies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Interreligious studies.