Resources for Pedagogy in Religious Studies
The following is a list of articles, books, and web-based resources intended to stimulate, challenge, and encourage reflection on pedagogical aims and practices within the discipline of Religious Studies. Students may also wish to consult the library of pedagogy-related books maintained by the University's Center for Teaching and Learning.
AAR Teaching Religious Studies Series (published by Oxford University Press). Volumes in this series contain essays that locate the topic within its historical context and within the academic study of religion, as well as provide discussions of related pedagogical issues. Titles presently available include:
- Teaching Religion and Violence, Brian Pennington, ed.
- Teaching Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies, Rebecca Todd Peters and Bernadette McNary-Zak, eds.
- Teaching Jung, Kelly Bulkeley and Clodagh Weldon, eds.
- Teaching Mysticism, William Parsons, ed.
- Teaching Religion and Film, Gregory J. Watkins, ed.
- Teaching Death and Dying, Christopher M. Moreman, ed.
- Teaching the Daode Jing, Gary D. DeAngelis and Frisina, Warren G., eds.
- Teaching Confucianism, , Jeffrey L. Richey, ed.
- Teaching New Religious Movements, David G. Bromley, ed.
- Teaching Religion and Healing, Linda Barnes and Ines Talamantez, eds.
- Teaching African American Religions, Carolyn M. Jones and Trost, Theodore Louis, eds.
- Teaching Durkheim, Terry F. Godlove, ed.
- Teaching Ritual, Catherine Bell, ed.
- Teaching Freud, Diane Jonte-Pace, ed.
- Teaching Islam, Brannon M. Wheeler, ed.
- Teaching Lévi-Strauss, Hans Penner, ed.
Beyond the Classics? Essays in Religious Studies and Liberal Education. Ed. Frank E. Reynolds and Sheryl L. Burkhalter. Atlanta, 1990.
The Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Chicago, maintains a web archive with useful general information about course design.
The Chicago Forum on Pedagogy and the Study of Religion. An occasional paper published by the Martin Marty Center at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago.
Monica A. Coleman, “Transforming to Teach: Teaching Religion to Today’s Black College Students,” Teaching Theology and Religion, 12.4 (2009): 95-100.
Susan G. Henking, "The Open Secret: Dilemmas of Advocacy in the (Religious Studies) Classroom," in Advocacy in the Classroom: Propaganda versus Engagement, ed. Patricia Meyers Spacks (1996), pp. 245-259.
Gavin Hyman, “The Study of Religion and the Return of Theology.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72(2007): 195-219.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65.4 (1997). A thematic issue on “Teaching and learning in religion and theology.”
Mark Juergensmeyer, ed., Teaching the Introductory Course in Religious Studies: A Sourcebook. Scholars Press, 1991. Contains essays by such figures as Robert Bellah, Jonathan Z. Smith, Ninian Smart, and Wilfred Cantwell Smith.
Russell T. McCutcheon. “Religion, Ire, and Dangerous Things.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72(2007): 173-193.
Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. London, 1997. See especially chapter 8, “Socrates in the Religious University.”
Mark Roncace and Patrick Gray, eds. Teaching the Bible: Practical Strategies for Classroom Instruction. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.
JZ Smith, “The Necessary Lie: Duplicity in the Disciplines,” http://teaching.uchicago.edu/?/ctl-archive/course-design-tutorials/assessing-and-improving/smith
JZ Smith, “Teaching the Bible in the Context of General Education,” Teaching Theology and Religion 1.2 (1998): 73-78.
Jon R. Stone, ed. The Craft of Religious Studies. London and New York, 1998. A series of articles on the field of Religious Studies.
The Religion Major and Liberal Education: an AAR White Paper, 2007
http://sbl-site.org/educational/teachingbible.aspx A resource for teaching Bible.
Teaching Theology and Religion. A journal on pedagogy published annually in four issues by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. The journal is searchable here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291467-9647
Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion website
The Wabash Center --- AAR Syllabi Project A searchable collection of online course syllabi.
Walvoord, Barbara E., Teaching and Learning in College Introductory Religion Courses. Blackwell: Malden, MA, 2008.
Yearley, Lee. “Bourgeois Relativism and the Comparative Study of the Self.” Tracing Common Themes: Comparative Courses in the Study of Religion. Eds. John B. Carman and Steven P. Hopkins. Atlanta, 1991, pp. 165-178. A fascinating discussion about how and why he changed his course, “Varieties of Religious Thought.”
Questions?
Please contact Brandon Cline, the Area Assistant for Pedagogical Initiatives, for more information about the Craft of Teaching Program.
