This essay shows how one professor teaching "Introduction to Buddhism" sought to counteract his students' view that Chinese and Tibetan forms of Buddhism represented a deviation from a "pure" Indian Buddhism rather than worthwhile forms of creativity and religiosity in themselves. A simple comparative assignment that asked a…

This article describes a pedagogical response to teaching world religions courses in a post-truth age. The course assignment and its application, utilized in both online and in-person formats, bridge student academic pursuits with religious traditions, require students to engage with source-based journalism, and extend beyond the classroom into…

The majority of this essay describes the content, pedagogy, and assessments associated with an undergraduate, interdisciplinary honors seminar on science and religion. The seminar is structured around five major themes: (a) philosophy of science, religion, and their interactions, (b) historical and contemporary case studies, (c) the controversy…

The "Make Your Own Religion" class project was designed to address a perceived need to introduce more theoretical thinking about religion into a typical religion survey course, and to do so in such a way that students would experience the wonder of theoretical discovery, and through or because of that discovery hopefully both better…

This Forum emerges from a session initiated by the Professional Development Committee at the 2017 conference of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston. A panel of five Bible scholars, from both theological education and undergraduate contexts, provide brief descriptions and analyses of a specific course they have taught online. They describe…

This article explores how to teach students to drink deeply from books. Drawing on the work of Peter Elbow, the article argues for incorporating experiential assignments that are structured to create a mediating realm between abstract concepts and concrete experiences. The bulk of the article explores in detail the author's use of such assignments…

Three courses in the adult education division of Loyola University (Louisiana) combined religious studies and literature appreciation using an interdisciplinary, team-taught approach. Instruction was guided by the metaphor of conversation, first through collegial discussion of the ideas underlying the courses and later, in the classroom, in the…