IDIS 390: Interfaith Relations in Oman

Note: This program is currently closed to new applications.

This course will offer students a unique opportunity to engage with other faiths, through the practice of Scriptural Reasoning and interfaith engagement.

People who identify as Christians, Muslims, and Hindus make up about 71 percent of the world’s population, yet even in today’s age of global connectedness, misunderstandings between these religious communities abound. Movies, TV shows, news outlets, and social media can reinforce stereotypes about cultures and regions of the world that are unfounded and harmful to peaceful cohabitation of the planet we all call home. Thus one crucially important impetus of work on interfaith relations over the past twenty years has been the need for the world’s diverse peoples to live in peace with one another. In addition to the need to live in peace, people of faith need to ground their approach to traditions other than their own in theoretical and theological understandings, and these must be informed by not just be reading and discussion, but by experience. Face-to-face interactions and immersions into other cultures, while they take time and money, are the best ways to learn about religious beliefs and practices, correct misunderstandings, and develop our understanding of human religious diversity.

The interim will include time for observation, conversation and discussion, and personal reflection with local members of the Hindu and Muslim community and participants in the program from around the world. Instruction will be both formal and informal, led sometimes by Calvin faculty, sometimes by members of the Al Amana Centre staff, and sometimes by members of the local community.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: October 1.

Oman

This course is taught at the Al Amana Center in Oman. The Al Amana Centre is an ecumenical and interfaith organization built upon the legacy of over 130 years of Christians working with their Muslim hosts and neighbors from different faiths represented in Oman. This course gives students the opportunity to approach learning in interfaith relations outside their own comfort zone, away from North America, in a setting where Protestant Christians are not and never have been a dominant cultural force. In a uniquely beautiful setting, the course will teach approaches and attitudes toward interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding and reconciliation; it will offer guided exploration of historical sites and natural wonders of Oman and visits to local Muslim, Christian, and Hindu places of worship.

Academics

2 credits

Cost

$4000-4,400 (estimate)

Questions / contact