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And here is a little bit about Starting Points:
In 2020, when I was applying to be a visiting scholar for the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education, I proposed writing a book for new religious studies teachers. I wanted to write the book I had wished was available to me, both as a student studying religion in college and graduate school, and as a new teacher in the field. The CSEE accepted my proposal and the result is Starting Points for Teaching World Religions: Content, Skills, and Habits of Mind for Understanding, Relationship, and Self-Awareness
Who is the audience for Starting Points?
Starting Points is useful for religious studies teachers, undergraduate majors and minors, people working in interfaith settings, and anyone interesting in learning about religions. There are also valuable lessons here for any educator or curriculum designer.
Why the name “Starting Points”?
How can we possibly learn all we need to know about the many religions of the world? The short answer is: we can’t! But what we can do is cultivate the content, skills, and habits of mind that empower us to engage well with any religion. And, no matter what stage we are on this journey, we must remind ourselves and each other that these are only starting points for future understanding, relationships, and self-awareness.
Which Content, Skills, and Habits of Mind?
When we teach about religions, what content should we teach? In a religious studies course, there is always more content than can possibly fit in one semester. I argue that the solution to this embarrassment of riches is to be very clear about not only our curriculum, but our hidden curriculum and null curriculum. We should help students to see why it is important to be transparent about all three.
What about skills? Relational journaling, phenomenology, fieldwork, and contemplative dialogue are the four most important skills we can impart. This is not only because they are central to religious studies (and we are unlikely to encounter them anywhere else), but because they are crucial to our being in the world today.
Finally, what are the habits of mind we should impart to people, to equip them for thinking about religions and worldviews for the rest of their lives? The five we have chosen are religions are 1.) internally diverse, 2.) change over time, 3.) embedded in culture, 4.) neither good nor evil but useful for many purposes, and 5.) might even possibly be true. And our sixth habit of mind is that all of these habits of mind also apply to the academic study of religion and to all the sciences.
What is the outcome?
We should choose our content, skills, and habits of mind with three goals in mind: to increase our understanding of our own and others’ worldviews, to deepen our relationships with others, and to cultivate more advanced self-awareness. My shorthand for these outcomes is URSA®, and it has come to guide not only my teaching, but all my life’s endeavors (on a good day, at least!).
More about the contents of Starting Points
The book is divided into three sections:
1. A brief history of the field of religious studies as it developed in the Western academic tradition. I always thought it would have been helpful for me as a student to have had this kind of “big picture” in mind as I received more in depth learning about various figures and movements. (Walter Capps’ Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline is a much more thorough history, but I found it too long for someone who is new to the discipline and who needs a sense of the overall story and major developments. Capps’ book is the reference text and “deep-dive” for the graduate student; Starting Points is the primer.)
2. An evaluation of the several approaches to teaching about religion that have emerged over the centuries. What are they? What are their advantages and limitations? How might we use several of them together in a course? My motivation for writing this section was that I would have benefited from having had more awareness of the different approaches my professors were using while I was learning from them. One of the unique things about our field is that students can be taking classes from a wide range of professors with similar–but not the same–methodological backgrounds, and it can be difficult for an undergrad to discern all the subtle differences they are encountering. (This part expands a bit on some of the ground Diane Moore covered in her Religious Literacy.)
3. Practical resources, such as a sample curriculum that includes: a detailed unit plan for an Introduction to Religious Studies, a detailed plan for a thematic unit (Mystical Experience), and a detailed plan for a unit on a specific religion (Christianity). I also provide a list of vocabulary, common misunderstandings, and considerations for teaching about five of the most commonly taught religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism).
Additionally, Starting Points is built on a structure that is useful to any educator: CSH for URSA. If we center our teaching and curriculum design on URSA (Understanding, Relationship, and Self-Awareness), we will remain focused on what is most valuable and transferrable for our students, what motivates and sets them up for success in all areas of life. And if we are mindful and transparent about our CSH (Content, Skills, and Habits of Mind)–especially our hidden curriculum and null curriculum–we will be successful in our collaborations with students toward their newfound understandings, relationships, and self-awareness.
I hope you will check it out and get in touch!
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Justin C. Maaia 