Santa Clara University

Philip Boo Riley
Local Religion Project
Difficult Dialogues
July 25, 2008

Negotiation of religious difference is a challenge on many fronts. France’s response in 2004 with legislation on religious symbols in schools attracted international attention. Public policy experts in universities and foundations like the First Amendment Center debate the significance of religious diversity in America’s public squares; and their counterparts in the fields of religious studies offer a range of views on the correlation between constructions of religious identity and intolerance of other religions globally. According to a 2004 Harris Poll, Americans find religious difference to be a main obstacle to world peace. Alexander Astin’s Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) recent study of college students demonstrates the issue surfaces on college campuses.

The goal of this initiative is to change campus culture to help students discourse intelligently and responsibly about what is clearly a central dimension of local, national, and global life—religious difference. A necessary condition for realizing this goal is to highlight and confront the university community with religious diversity. LRP will help realize this goal and fulfill this condition through collaborations on and off campus. LRP’s inter-disciplinary method allows it to engage teaching scholars from across the humanities and social sciences; and its ties to the region’s diverse religious congregations allows it to draw on the community to bring religious diversity to the center of campus.

We believe this initiative can become a model for campuses supporting scholarly and engaged discussion of religion. The scholarly contribution to current discussions of religious diversity in the public square will address the larger Academy; and the models and multimedia materials we plan to develop will help other colleges and universities collaborate with their local community organizations and congregations to advance the study and discussion of religious diversity.

• Click to view the full proposal as a PDF.