Engaging the Borders: Empathy, Religious Studies, and Pre-Professional Fields

This article proposes that religious studies instructors can gain pedagogical insights regarding the value and teaching of empathy from pre-professional health care and counseling fields. I present research findings from these fields to support claims that empathic skills are teachable. I then show...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching theology and religion
Main Author: Trothen, Tracy J. 1963- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2016]
In: Teaching theology and religion
RelBib Classification:AH Religious education
AX Inter-religious relations
NCA Ethics
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This article proposes that religious studies instructors can gain pedagogical insights regarding the value and teaching of empathy from pre-professional health care and counseling fields. I present research findings from these fields to support claims that empathic skills are teachable. I then show that empathy has been established within the field of religious studies as important in order to understand the beliefs of the religious other. I conclude that religious studies educators should be concerned about how to teach empathy, and suggest that pre-professional research findings point us in the direction of how to do this. Experiential exercises such as role-playing and other simulation exercises seem to be most effective in teaching empathic skills. I present examples that demonstrate how listening exercises and the role-playing of cases can be used in the religious studies classroom and can assist in the development of empathy for the religious other.
ISSN:1467-9647
Contains:Enthalten in: Teaching theology and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/teth.12336