For faculty and administrators, the program extends far beyond mutual tolerance and the appreciation of difference. “The stakes were definitely raised after 9/11,” said the Rev. Tracy W. Sadd, the college chaplain and lead instructor in the interfaith major. “What’s called for now is interfaith peacemaking. Every single one of us who is an American citizen has an obligation to do what we can in the place where we are. There’s no technique — political, military or otherwise — that’s going to fix this. We need leadership to help people with the deep work. And we all need to be part of it.”
Admirable as such sentiments are, the place of interfaith study in higher education remains contested. Many professors of religious studies bridle at the new field’s orientation toward real-world application rather than pure scholarship. There is also concern among some members of the American Academy of Religion that professors of interfaith studies hold a positive view of religion in society rather than approaching it with critical, skeptical detachment.
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