The Gospel of John teaches through telling the story of Jesus in light of the familiar Hebrew faith stories. It is an interpretive task that presents Jesus to his audience and teaches them adequate faith. John the Teacher skillfully uses narrative skills to create the familiar-strange effect in his storytelling. Each story is followed by a…

This article comprises an empirical case study of student religiosity in the context of urban school choice. The purpose of this study was to compare student religiosity in a racially diverse religious private school to determine whether religious faith is a unifying factor across racial categories. Insofar as school choice has been called…

For decades researchers assessed sense of community (SOC), inclusion, and pluralism within academic settings. In the present study, 2,220 undergraduate students (1,442 women, 778 men; M age = 23.42 years; SD = 7.84) at two Catholic universities responded to perceived levels of school sense of community, inclusion, and religious pluralism. Analyses…

When people of faith participate in movements for social change, how are their religious and moral identities formed, challenged, and transformed? Although they have explicit and tangible goals as they participate in advocacy, protest, and boycotts, religious social activists also, James Jasper argues, craft "lives worth living" (1997).…

Participation in the arts is a form of practical reason and as such has the potential to form and transform the faith of individuals. The findings from Katherine M. Douglass's 2011 study on the role of the arts in the faith lives of young adults provides examples of the transformative potential of the arts as they foster expression,…

It is crucial to recover the practice of seeking and refining ways to speak of faith. Certain sayings, idioms, maxims, and proverbs constituting wisdom from various cultures help shape a faith that is liberative, particularly evident in undervalued and dominated cultures. This article examines proverbial wisdom and the patois of the street to…

After an elaboration of the paradigm shift concerning religious education in Europe, we will give a critical presentation of the Belgian and Flemish system of religious education. The article continues with a discussion of diverse proposals to change the religious education system in Flanders, and concludes that the introduction of an independent,…

The article identifies international cases--from the United States, Europe, and the United Nations--of an emergent interface of religion, education, and security. This is manifest in the uses of religion in education to counter religious extremism, the notional "counter terrorist classroom." To avoid an over-association of extremism with religion,…

The aim of this article is to consider the psychological mechanisms that may prevent individuals from achieving religious tolerance and religious pluralism. After defining these concepts and explaining why they are desirable outcomes, four psychological obstacles to the achievement of religious tolerance and religious pluralism will be explored by…

Comparative Religion is seen as an important curricula because it could serve as a mechanism for enhancing cross-cultural religious communication. The authors seek to examine the role of Comparative Religion as an important science for enhancing dialogue skills. Such a communication skill, however, must be developed from both intra- and…

This article focuses on the need for dialogue in the form of a "third space" for multi-faith realities. In exploring the idea of a "third space," the author draws on the use of the term borrowed from Homi Bahha. Third space, as it is defined in the context of this article, understands the complexities of hybridity, or multiple identities, as…

The aim of this article is to present a framework for studying the religious identity development of highly religious Christian and Muslim adolescents. Building on existing theories on identity development, the authors define highly religious Christian and Muslim adolescents as "orthoprax" adolescents and explore the consequences of this for…

This article begins with an acknowledgment of the complexities of religion's position in the English school system that open it to diverse interpretations. It uses research in a variety of schools to illustrate three different approaches to religion: "doxological", "sacramental", and "instrumental", founded, respectively, on certain faith in God,…

During the last decades the concept of interreligious education has been developed in which exploration and personal identity formation form important aspects. The increasing multi-cultural and multi-religious society requires open, respectful, and tolerant attitudes for which schools have to prepare. Therefore, theorists on interreligious…

Recognition is the main word attached to multicultural perspectives. The multicultural call for recognition, the one calling for the recognition of cultural minorities and identities, the one now voiced by liberal states all over and also in Israel was a more difficult one. It took the author some time to realize that calling for the recognition…