Online Interfaith Dialogue Workshop

Date posted: October 21, 2017

Respect Graduate School, Bethlemem, PA has launched an online “Interfaith Dialogue Workshop.”

The workshops aims to provide basic principles of inter-faith work and empower students with foundational skills to serve in a religiously diverse social context. This pilot workshop will benefit Muslims who plan to do service in the field of inter-faith dialogue.

According to Respect’s website, this workshop consists of eleven video interviews with prominent interfaith leaders and academics who have comprehensive knowledge and field experience in the subject of interfaith dialogue. These videos are also accompanied by a reading titled Interfaith Principles, which reflects the notes of three national summits that took place among Muslim community leaders who are also prominent in the field of inter-faith work. This document contains many important resources for inter-faith dialogue.

In order to successfully complete the workshop, participants will be asked to complete an online test based on the interviews and submit notes, as well as prepare an inter-faith field project of their own. The field project may consist of an interfaith meeting organized by the participant in his/her local town, or it may even be a field trip made to a local interfaith community.

Participants may anticipate the following learning outcomes from this workshop:

Understand the elements of their community in terms of demographics and sociological realities.
Articulate the differences between contemporary religious practices and beliefs and the underlying historical and contextual conditions that they emerged from.
Demonstrate a solid understanding of religious foundations pertaining to the necessity of inter-faith dialogue and the unique religious jurisprudence cases that may be faced during inter-faith dialogue initiatives.
Create a plan to be incorporated in a local community that will facilitate inter-faith dialogue opportunities.