The Council of Newton: A Pedagogical Exercise for Understanding Conceptual and Historical Difference with Respect to Intra-Religious Notions of Divinity
In this essay, I examine the following pedagogical question: how can we unlock students' mistaken notions that religious "traditions" are monoliths, and instead help them to recognize, puzzle over, and appreciate the complex multiplicity and vibrant set of doctrinal and ritual convers...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2015]
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In: |
Teaching theology and religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 18, Issue: 2, Pages: 149-158 |
RelBib Classification: | AH Religious education FB Theological education NBC Doctrine of God NBF Christology |
Further subjects: | B
Classroom learning activity
B Christology B Ontology B Multiplicity B History B God B Metaphor B learning through group work B Philosophy |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | In this essay, I examine the following pedagogical question: how can we unlock students' mistaken notions that religious "traditions" are monoliths, and instead help them to recognize, puzzle over, and appreciate the complex multiplicity and vibrant set of doctrinal and ritual conversations that characterize religious traditions? More specifically, how can we teach students to recognize these differences with respect to a religion's notions of god? And how can we do so even when students are particularly stuck on, invested in, or trained to see homogeneity? In answer to these questions, I present an exercise that I have used in my World Religions courses. This exercise - which I call the "Council of Newton" (named for the building in which I first taught it) - is particularly effective because it helps students uncover and wrestle with this diversity at two levels: conceptually and historically. |
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ISSN: | 1467-9647 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Teaching theology and religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/teth.12283 |