2022
The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement
Chris Seiple and Dennis R. Hoover
2022 – Publication
“The Routledge Handbook of Religious Literacy, Pluralism, and Global Engagement”
Edited by Chris Seiple and Dennis R. Hoover
Published by Routledge
The growing religious diversity within societies around the world presents both challenges and opportunities. A degree of competition between deeply held religious/worldview perspectives is natural and inevitable, yet at the same time the world urgently needs engagement and partnership across lines of difference. None of the world’s most pressing problems can be solved by any single actor, and as such it is not a question of if but when you partner with an individual or institution that does not think, act, or believe as you do. The authors argue that religious literacy—defined as a dynamic combination of competencies and skills, continuously refined through real-world cross-cultural engagement—is vital to building societies and states of neighborly solidarity and civic fairness.
Through examination, reflection, and case studies across multiple faith traditions and professional fields, this handbook equips scholars and students, as well as policymakers and practitioners, to assess, analyze, and act collaboratively in a world of deep diversity.
Contributors: Sughra Ahmed; Tehmina Arora; Stephen Bailey and Hien Vu; Raimundo C. Barreto; Chelsea Langston Bombino and Stanley Carlson-Thies; Wendy Cadge, Carolina P. Seigler, and Trace Haythorn; Katya Drozdova; Paul Fuller; Josh Good; Brian J. Grim and Kent Johnson; Shadi Hamid; Matius Ho; Shirley Hoogstra and Robin Fretwell Wilson; Dennis R. Hoover; Robert J. and Jessica R. Joustra; Minhas Majeed Khan; Maryann Cusimano Love; Benjamin Pietro Marcus; Katherine Marshall; Mahan Mirza; David A. Palmer; Zeenat Rahman; Ebrahim Rasool; Bob Roberts Jr.; David Saperstein; Nicole Bibbins Sedaca; Chris Seiple; Shylashri Shankar; Roy Speckhardt; W. Christopher Stewart; Stephanie Summers; Asma T. Uddin; James Walters; James K. Wellman Jr.
2020 – Program History
This project, led by Chris Seiple and Dennis R. Hoover, began with a three-day workshop at Alderbrook Lodge on Hood Canal in Western Washington State. The workshop brought together scholars and NGO leaders from several nations to explore how to help actors from outside and within a given culture to first understand and then engage each other in order to accomplish specific goals that improve conditions for everyone—those of all faiths and none.
