Marion Larson on Bubbles, Bridges, and Multifaith Engagement

tonygill — Sun, 26 Feb 2017 09:00:14 +0000

Are Christian students and faculty on private religious colleges contained in a bubble? If so, what can they do to engage an increasingly pluralistic religious society? Prof. Marion Larson, professor and chair of the English Department at Bethel University, answers these questions and presents a number of different strategies for engaging people of different faiths based upon her new book From Bubble to Bridge, co-authored with her Bethel colleague, Prof. Sara Shady. We begin the conversation by exploring where the idea for this book came from. Dr. Larson talks about her interest in viewing teaching through the lens of “hospitality,” a concept that becomes central to also engaging people of different faith traditions. We then discuss the concept of a “bubble,” and why many Christian students attending private religious colleges could often be seen as existing within such an enclosed environment. Marion does not consider a bubble to be entirely bad, and we discuss how religious leaders and parents are often afraid of seeing their children lose their religious traditions in a multicultural world. Bubbles can be protective, but they also can be limiting, and Prof. Larson seeks methods of trying to negotiate these competing tendencies. Our discussion also brings up the issue of whether religious faith should be kept out of the public square as a means of ameliorating conflict, but Prof. Larson disagrees with this type of assessment, noting that one’s faith is to be lived publicly. We discuss various notions of engaging people of different faiths, including tolerance, inclusion, dwelling, and “sending.” Much of this is premised on Profs. Larson and Shady’s concept of “hospitality,” which in turn is greatly informed by Miroslav Wolf’s notion of “embracing arms.” Prof. Larson discusses the importance of three virtues in interfaith engagement: receptive humility; reflective commitment; and imaginative empathy. Throughout the conversation, Marion discusses case studies of actual individuals who have lived out an interfaith engagement as a means of illustrating a number of the theoretical points she is making. She also talks about Sara and her work with Interfaith Youth Corps, a Chicago-based organization founded by Eboo Patel. We also explore the tension between inclusivity and the desire to hang out with our own tight-knit homogenous groups, and whether or not there is Christian privilege at work in US society. Marion finishes with some reflections about what she and Prof. Shady learned throughout the process of conceptualizing, researching, and writing this book. Recorded: February 10, 2017.

Darin Mather on Evangelicals and Racial Attitudes

tonygill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:14 +0000

Are white evangelical Christians becoming more tolerant of other races over time? Darin Mather — a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota — discusses his recent research on the topic, published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. Mather finds that younger evangelicals — those born after 1957, the official “end” of the Baby Boom — demonstrate much more tolerant attitudes and greater racial solidarity with minority groups such as African Americans and Hispanics. We discuss some of the reasons why the younger cohort is more tolerant, including greater contact with individuals of different races and ethnicities, as well as exposure to the ideas of toleration that permated the post-Civil Rights Movement. We have a fascinating discussion relating to relativism and examine whether toleration for other cultures necessarily means a change in (perhaps watering down of) one’s theological mindset. Younger evangelicals appear to accept cultural diversity so long as it is accompanies by an agreement on the basical laws of society. We also delve into the area of public policy, noting that younger evangelicals tend to be less supportive of affirmative action and economic assistance to historically disadvantaged communities. Mather offers several speculative ideas on why this might be the case, including the connection of evangelicalism to the South and the Republican Party. We finish with a brief discussion of Darin’s current dissertation research examining the differences between religious and secular education in Guatemala and the impact that has on equality of opportunity for young women. Recorded: March 7, 2011.

Research On Religion » racial reconciliation

Marion Larson on Bubbles, Bridges, and Multifaith Engagement

Darin Mather on Evangelicals and Racial Attitudes