Interfaith relations

Level 6 - DT3055-02

In this module, students will be offered an opportunity to examine a range of key interactions between the five main world religions.

Students will have been introduced to all five main world religions in the module Religion, meaning and value at Level 4, and will have studied some of them at greater depth in other modules. In this module, students will be offered an opportunity to examine a range of key interactions between these religions – clashes of beliefs and values, the historical events to which these have given rise, and ways in which difficulties, actual and potential, might be resolved.

Topics covered

Main topics of the module include:

Introduction to interfaith relations
Christian-Jewish relations in the New Testament
Later Christian responses to Judaism
Franz Rosenzweig on Judaism and Christianity
Contemporary Jewish responses to Christianity
Jewish-Muslim relations
Christian-Muslim relations
Muslim-Christian relations
Hinduism and interfaith relations
Buddhism and interfaith relations

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you will be expected to be able to:

Knowledge and understanding:

Explain key areas of disagreement in doctrine and practice between Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
Identify some of the most important contributors to debates about interfaith relations, and some of the key documents produced.
Expound some of the key arguments about interfaith relations, showing an in-depth appreciation of opposing points of view.

Intellectual and Cognitive Skills

Give a balanced assessment of opposing arguments
With respect to each disagreement concerning doctrine or practice, provide an argument for what they consider to be the most effective way to resolve the dispute.

Practical and Transferable Skills

Select and organise material from a range of primary and secondary sources
Conduct a detailed critical analysis of texts and ideologies
Produce clear, well-structured written work
Show ability to manage their own learning, including working effectively to deadlines.

Assessment

A two thousand-word essay (40%) and a 1.5-hour unseen written examination (60%).

Dr Shanon Shah

Dr Shanon Shah holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from King's College London. He previously lectured in religious studies there and at the University of Kent. He is the author of the monograph The Making of a Gay Muslim: Religion, Sexuality and Identity in Malaysia and Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and is an editor at Critical Muslim, the flagship publication of the Muslim Institute. Shanon is currently the Interim Network Coordinator of Faith for the Climate, a national climate action network, and also conducts research on minority religions and alternative spiritualities at the Information Network on Religious Movements (Inform), a research charity based at King's College London. His research and teaching interests include the ethnographic study of religion, contemporary Islam and Christianity, new religious movements, gender and sexuality, popular culture, and social movements.