Interfaith Peacebuilding and Global Justice

Can religions get along, and can interreligious relations be used to achieve positive social change in a complex global world? Efforts to pursue interfaith cooperation by a number of development agencies, policy think tanks, non-profit organizations, and local activists have become ever-more popular in the past decades, producing an avalanche of materials and approaches on how to promote and achieve interfaith harmony. These efforts come with a new set of thorny questions: who gets to be included at the interfaith table? How do religious worldviews change the aims and methods of peacebuilding? How do global relations of power affect the aims and means of justice? This class will travel around the world to explore the promises and limitations of changing the world through interfaith relations. We will explore groups attempting to preserve the Amazonian rainforest, Indian sacred sites shared by Hindus and Muslims, the work of interfaith icons like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, the challenges of LGBTQ+ interfaith organizers, and the utopian visions of large interfaith organizations like the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions. We will take a hands-on approach based on case studies in order to assess best practices, persistent challenges, and limitations in the work of leveraging religion to foster global peace and justice. Guest speakers and active class discussion will encourage students' own reflections on what religion is, its political import, and the historical and ongoing challenges of applying the lens of interfaith relations to conflict resolution and transformation.