ERIC Number: EJ1056825
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Apr
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1368-4868
EISSN: N/A
The Council of Newton: A Pedagogical Exercise for Understanding Conceptual and Historical Difference with Respect to Intra-Religious Notions of Divinity
Karapanagiotis, Nicole
Teaching Theology & Religion, v18 n2 p149-158 Apr 2015
In this essay, I examine the following pedagogical question: how can we unlock students' mistaken notions that religious "traditions" are monoliths, and instead help them to recognize, puzzle over, and appreciate the complex multiplicity and vibrant set of doctrinal and ritual conversations that characterize religious traditions? More specifically, how can we teach students to recognize these differences with respect to a religion's notions of god? And how can we do so even when students are particularly stuck on, invested in, or trained to see homogeneity? In answer to these questions, I present an exercise that I have used in my World Religions courses. This exercise--which I call the "Council of Newton" (named for the building in which I first taught it)--is particularly effective because it helps students uncover and wrestle with this diversity at two levels: conceptually and historically.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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