Initial Curators: Megan Lane, Interfaith Youth Core

Introduction

This Knowledge Hub provides resources for Civic Engagement and Service Learning professionals interested in fostering opportunities for students to engage their religious, spiritual, and secular values in their service work. Religious and ethical convictions are the driving force behind people’s motivation to serve others and ignoring them misses valuable opportunity to connect values to action. As America continues to diversify, opportunities for conflict around religious difference abound. However, there is also ample opportunity for students to engage in cooperative and healthy ways by exploring the shared values between traditions- specifically through service to their communities.

Key resources

A) Religion in America

• Eck, Diana. A New Religious America: How a “Christian Country” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001.
• Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. [http://www.pewforum.org/]
• Prothero, Stephen. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–and Doesn’t. New York: Harper Collins, 2007.
• Putnam, Robert and David Campbell. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010.

B) Interfaith Cooperation as a Civic Project

• Heckman, Bud and Rori Picker Neiss, eds. Interactive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community Building Handbook. Woodstock, Vermont: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2008.
• Matlins, Stuart and Arthur Magida (eds). How to Be A Perfect Stranger 6th Edition: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook. Woodstock, Skylight Paths Publishing, 2015.
• Patel, Eboo. Interfaith Leadership, A Primer. Boston: Beacon Press, 2016.
• Patel, Eboo and Cassie Meyer. “The Civic Relevance of Interfaith Cooperation for Colleges and Universities.” The Journal of College and Character 12, No. 1 (2011): doi:10.2202/1940-1639.1764.

C) Religion in American Higher Education

• Astin, Alexander, et. al. Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students’ Inner Lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.
• Chickering, Arthur et.al. Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 2006.
• Engaging Worldview: A Snapshot of Religious & Spiritual Campus Climate. [https://www.ifyc.org/resources/engaging-worldview-snapshot-religious-spiritual-campus-climate]
• Jacobsen, Douglas, and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen. No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Patel, Eboo et. al. “Leadership Practices for Interfaith Excellence in Higher Education”. AAC&U Liberal Education. [https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/2015/winter-spring/patel]

Organizations

• Interfaith Youth Core
  Non-profit working with colleges and universities to build interfaith cooperation through dialogue and community service
• Ask Big Questions, Hillel International
  National program focused on building respectful and productive dialogue across lines on difference
• Tanenbaum Foundation
  Center for Interreligious Understanding, working to combat religious prejudice in schools and the workplace

Exemplars

• Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
  Religiously affiliated campus focusing its interfaith efforts on combating illiteracy in their community
• University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
  Public campus focusing its interfaith efforts on alleviating hunger among its student body

Other Useful Information

Educational Resources

Free downloads from Interfaith Youth Core focused on building and facilitating interfaith service Projects.

• Interfaith Cooperation 101
• Incorporating Interfaith into Existing Campus Programs
• Frameworks for Interfaith Conversations
• 4 Ways to Make a Service Project Interfaith [Video]
• Facilitator’s Tool: Interfaith Conversations on Shared Values