Time Period

Amy Coney Barrett and the Internal Diversity of American Catholic Women

By Lauren R. Kerby and Mary Perez

When Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court, her religious identity as a conservative, charismatic Catholic immediately became a subject of intense scrutiny. The public conversation about Barrett’s identity reveals the internal diversity of how American Catholics think about what it means to be a Catholic woman, mother, and even feminist. Drawing on a varied selection of recent news articles, this lesson offers an opportunity for students to 1) practice recognizing internal diversity and 2) ask new questions about a topic as a result.

Buddhism(s), Meditation(s), and Colonialism in Burma

Lauren Kerby

By Nicholas Scrimenti

This lesson illustrates the key principles of internal diversity, historical change, and cultural embeddedness using Erik Braun’s article about Burmese meditation vis-à-vis British colonialism. The story of how British colonialism in Burma shaped the way meditation was taught and practiced in Burma, as well as its subsequent export to the United States, is a clear object-lesson in the tenets of religious literacy.

#ScholarStrike: James Baldwin and Educating Against Society

Lauren Kerby

By Lauren R. Kerby

On September 8-9, 2020, academics across the country, including faculty and staff at the Religious Literacy Project, are participating in teach-ins for racial justice known as the #ScholarStrike. I assigned these readings from James Baldwin, Patricia Hill Collins, and Tressie McMillan Cottom to my students at Harvard Divinity School to start our semester studying the history of education and religion in the U.S. For others interested in these questions, I offer them as resources for thinking about how critical pedagogy can serve the goals of racial justice.

#ScholarStrike: Anti-Black Racism and Internal Diversity in American Christianity

Lauren Kerby

By Lauren R. Kerby

On September 8-9, 2020, academics across the country, including faculty and staff at the Religious Literacy Project, are participating in teach-ins for racial justice known as the #ScholarStrike. As part of our contribution, we offer this lesson plan about American Christians’ responses to Donald Trump and the George Floyd protests as a resource for teachers seeking ways to connect religion and race in their discussions of current events.

Finding Religious Literacy in Paris

Lauren Kerby

By Mitchell Rutledge

Mitchell Rutledge is a graduate of Prospect High School in Mount Prospect Illinois, where he was a student of Religious Literacy Project Education Fellow John Camardella. Here he shares an experience of meeting Kahina Bahloul, founder of a women’s mosque in Paris. After learning about her work in his high school world religions class, Mitchell was eager to hear more and what religious literacy looked like beyond the classroom.