Religious Literacy Leadership in Higher Education

Religious literacy in China?

Adam Dinham — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:37:56 +0000

I joined a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office human rights delegation to China last month. The talks, held in Nanjing, took religion and civil society as their theme. Both ideas are especially controversial in the Chinese context. Religions are subject to state regulation and in some cases, notably the Falun Gong, to persecution. Likewise civil society can be a troubling concept in a state-dominated society which finds it difficult to tolerate the debates and alternatives which emerge in the spaces between state and individuals. Outside the talks, on a series of highly stage-managed visits – to a prison, a Protestant seminary and a Bible Press – the delegation was invited to sample the fruits of an emerging civil society. Inside the talks the challenge was to consider our own human rights and civil society experience after MPs’ expenses, the phone tapping affair and last summer’s riots.

Chinese counterparts came at religion from such a distinctive starting point – convinced that theirs is a religiously free society, and that the versions of religion permitted and regulated by the state are unquestionably right and determinable. This makes for a certainty and singularity which RLLP challenges at the outset. Religious literacy has to be about both the ability for quality exploration of religious faith and identity AND the freedom to debate, disagree and dissent. The really high quality of conversation about religion is one which can welcome uncertainty, doubt and disbelief – and engage with certainty too in ways which don’t stop the conversation. It isn’t just the Chinese who find this difficult to achieve.

Restoring religion to the public square

Matthew Francis — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:13:21 +0000

Cover image from The Tablet, 28th January, 2012

Professor Linda Woodhead, Director of the £12-million AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme has written an article for The Tablet, entitled ‘Restoring religion to the public square: faith’s role in civil society‘. In this article Woodhead describes both the secular assumptions of many academic disciplines within British universities as well as the need for a more intelligent and informed discussion about religion in the public sphere.

The programme that Professor Woodhead has directed for the last five years has sought to build up capacity in research into religion, and the Westminster Faith Debates (mentioned previously on this blog) are an important part of the process of disseminating this research to the wider public. The article goes onto highlight that a younger generation of academics is often unhampered by negative assumptions about the value of research into religion. At this stage I should point out that I have personally benefited from the Religion and Society Programme, in my role as Editor of a website they fund. That project, as with many others funded by the programme, play an important role in what we are also trying to achieve with the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme: a Higher Education sector that is confident and knowledgeable about religion and the role that religion plays both within HEIs and in wider society.

If a better quality of conversation about religion is to be achieved then, as Professor Woodhead writes, we could do with a “less secular bias in our universities and a more mature understanding of religion”. A new generation of academics working without a secular bias, and serious investment from research councils (and in our case, HEFCE) is helping to develop this mature understanding.

To read the article in full, click here.

Westminster Faith Debates

Matthew Francis — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:04:20 +0000

Debating the latest research on religion in public life

The AHRC/ESRC Religion & Society Programme has organised a series of six public debates to showcase and debate research that it has funded through the course of the programme. Topics range from religious identity, the place of faith schools and trends in religion and values in modern Britain. Respondents to academic presentations include Trevor Phillips and Richard Dawkins.

Matthew will be presenting at the debate on March 7^th, on the subject of ‘What have we learnt about radicalisation?’ Adam will also be presenting, on March 21^st, on the subject of ‘What role for religious organisations in an era of shrinking welfare?’, when former Home Secretary David Blunkett will be responding.

To learn more about the debates, visit the Religion & Society website.

Website updated!

Matthew Francis — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:05:27 +0000

New blog – Religiously Literate

As part of making our resources as easy to access as possible, we’ve been updating the website. As part of this we have created this new blog, titled ‘Religiously Literate’. We’ll be updating this with news of changes to the site, so that you can find your way round, as well as using the blog to post information about new resources, events taking place and news items relevant to those interested in religious literacy.

RSS feed

To keep up-to-date on our blog you can now subscribe to our RSS feed – to see what new events, news and comments have been added to the site. Click on the RSS button below, or in the menu bar on the right of any of the pages in the website.

Twitter

You can also follow us on Twitter. We’ll be tweeting our news as well those relevant snippets from other sources.

Follow @RelLitProg

Email

We’ll be grateful to hear your feedback about these changes, and any comments you can make as to how to improve our resources and their accessibility.

Wishing you all a Happy 2012!

Matthew and Adam.

Religiously Literate! The RLLP blog

RLLP main — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:36:38 +0000

Welcome!

The blog is principally written by the Programme Director, Adam Dinham, and Manager, Matthew Francis. However, we invite comments and contributions so please do let us know if you would like to have your say. In addition to our own comment we also add news, summaries of new research and other information that we think will be useful to people interested in Religious Literacy. Again, if you know of research or news which you think should be included, please let us know.

All submissions and comments can be emailed to: info@religiousliteracyHE.org.

Goldsmiths case study

Matthew Francis — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:58:56 +0000

Case Study at Goldsmiths, University of London

Building on the research undertaken by the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme on a national basis we are now undertaking an in-depth study concentrating on the role of religion within one Higher Education Institution. Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) this case study will generate a rich analysis of the role of religion in HEIs that is complementary to those resources already available on this website.

The research will seek the views of students and academic and operational staff in both a series of interviews and focus groups. A survey has also been circulated and responses from this will be analysed alongside the formal policies and strategies of the college.

For further information about this case study please contact the researchers Email:Dr Matthew Francis and Martha Shaw.

8^th December 2011