Messiah College professor speaks at interfaith conference on resurgence of interest in the study of religion on college campuses
January 22nd, 2014
GRANTHAM, Pa. (Jan. 22, 2014) — Messiah College professor Douglas Jacobsen, distinguished professor of church history and theology, will speak at the national conference “Toward a Field of Interfaith Studies: Course Sequences, Pedagogies and Best Practices” January 22-24 at New York University. Jacobsen helped plan the conference, designed to assist colleges and universities that want to develop curriculum to address the resurgence of interest in the study of religion.
Jacobsen is author, with his wife Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen of “No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education,” 2012, Oxford University Press. The Jacobsens are co-directors of the Religion in the Academy Project at Messiah.
Jacobsen will speak January 23 as part of a panel discussing “Institutionalizing Interfaith: The Role of Curriculum.” Also on the panel will be Richard Morrill, former president of the Teagle Foundation; Laurie Patton, dean of arts and sciences at Duke University; and Donna Carroll, president of Dominican University.
About the conference
“Toward a Field of Interfaith Studies” is sponsored by Interfaith Youth Core in conjunction with the Council for Independent Colleges. It is co-hosted by NYU’s Of Many Institute, Wagner School of Public Service, and Silver School of Social Work.
Nineteen years ago Notre Dame’s George Marsden wrote “The Soul of the American University,” the premise of which was that religion had largely departed from colleges and universities which had moved “from Protestant establishment to established nonbelief.” But much has changed in two decades. Religious observance and diversity is on the rise on campuses. Many schools are now developing new programs to study religious pluralism and to foster interfaith understanding and cooperation.
“Religion has not disappeared as some scholars formerly thought it would, and religion remains a matter of enormous consequence for many individuals and societies,” explains Jacobsen. “Responding intelligently to the questions of life that students find themselves asking as they try to make sense of themselves and the world is a necessity in this new era of ever-increasing social, intellectual and religious complexity.”
Speakers at the event include Chelsea Clinton, co-founder and co-chair of the Of Many Institute; Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core; Ali Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University; Rabbi Justice Baird, dean of Auburn Theological Seminary; and numerous others.
About Messiah College
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls over 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Mechanicsburg, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg.
