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BTI Consortium | Last Updated August 15, 2025 - 11:00AM
INTERELIGIOUS LEARNING
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMPS8088-01
Calling out from the Depths: Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Psalms
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
For centuries, Jews and Christians have turned to the Book of Psalms in times of joy and thanksgiving, and in times of sadness and lament. However, there have been far fewer opportunities for members of these two communities and others to explore these ancient poetic texts together as fellow spiritual seekers. What do we share in common? Where do we differ? How might reading these sources with people with different religious or ideological commitments impact our relationship with the text?
Professor
Class Day & Time
Davis, Andrew R
W
04:30PM-06:30PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
1
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
Y
Notes
(At least one course in Biblical Studies and one course in Theology. Pre-requisites can be taken at the undergraduate or graduate level.)
School
Boston College Department of Theology
THEO5017-01
Japan and New England: Comparative Aesthetics and Poetics
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This is a course on religious and philosophical aesthetics in two specific places: Japan and New England, mostly Massachusetts. The question: how do we see the world? How should we see the world? This question of seeing also becomes the question of inhabitinghow do we dwell in relation to the world? Is it really something separate from us? Figures to be studied include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sato Haruo, Henry David Thoreau, Motoori Norinaga, Emily Dickinson, Nishida Kitaro, Robert Frost, Hayao Miyazaki, and Porsha Olayiwola. The course will cover poetry, film, and travelogue, as well as essays.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Kruger
R
2:00 p.m. - 4:25 p.m.
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
GRAD/UGRAD SPLIT�
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTA 815
World Religions in Boston
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
In an increasingly pluralistic society it is essential to have some understanding of the beliefs and worship patterns of other religions and to be able to engage in dialogue with them. This course utilizes the Pluralism Project at Harvard to explore new forms of interfaith engagement. Seven weekly lectures introduce the issues surrounding interfaith work and a basic understanding of the tenets and practices of five major religions. Site visits (to Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist and Jewish worship services) offer first- hand experiences and the opportunity for discussion and interaction with religious leaders and lay people.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Shenton, Andrew
see notes
See notes
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
8/21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27 (NB NOT Sunday 8/24); 2-9PM
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTY 834
Empathy and pluralism:� Understanding, developmentally, varieties of faiths among and within us
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
We live among people who differ in many ways not only from ourselves but from one another. This situation, globally as well as locally, often gives rise to fear and anxiety, misunderstanding and conflict, harm and violence. Our response, too readily, is fight, flight, or freeze, and our shorter-term tactics and longer-term strategies are insufficient. The course addresses this situation as it examines texts, perspectives, and experiences having to do with two subject areas: pluralism and empathy. We explore pluralism, interpersonally and socially, in experiences and engagements among differences in (a) religion and theology, (b) race and ethnicity, and (c) sexuality and gender. We explore pluralism within one�s own psyche, in the interaction among coexisting developmental perspectives (that of the child, the adolescent, and the adult) and in the abiding contrast between a perspective we profess consciously and another we enact unconsciously. We explore the development of empathy from �the default position� (characterized by egocentrism, presumed objectivity, unexamined simplification, and binary thinking) toward mutually beneficial ways of being and being-with others.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Schlauch, Chris
W
2:30pm-5:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N/A
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3656A
Realms of Power: Animals in Religion I
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This comparative course will focus on the symbolic, ritual, and ideological dimensions of animal lives in religious worlds. Using particular cultural histories as paradigms, we will consider themes such as cosmogony, apocalypse, species hierarchy and reversal, metamorphosis, prophecy, consciousness and subjectivity, mimesis, magic, hunting, sacrifice, commodification, and the role of fantastic creatures. Central to our work will be the question of how animals have been theorized both in the history of religion and in contemporary discourse about animals in religion. Enrollment is limited to 30. Please write to Prof. Patton: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu to request an application.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Patton
R
03:00pm-04:59pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Enrollment is limited to 30. Please write to Prof. Patton: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu to request an application.
School
Hartford International
ET-670
Ethics in Muslim and Christian Perspective: A Dialogical Approach
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This collaboratively taught course facilitates dialogical exploration of ethics from Muslim and Christian points of view. Topics will include scriptural foundations of ethics discourse, the influence of Greek philosophy, modes of moral decision-making, and the relationship of ethics to aesthetics. Substantial time will be devoted to analysis of ethics discourse from the literary legacy of major Muslim and Christian thinkers over the centuries.
This course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies: Elective
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Elective
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
Professor
Class Day & Time
Mosher, Lucinda / Komaly, Hossein
T
5:00pm-6:50pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Synchronous Online
School
Hartford International
RS-525
American Religious Realities
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
As part of the MAIRS curriculum, this course facilitates an understanding of the scope of America�s religious diversity: the nature of its current complexity and factors contributing to its emergence; the mutually influencing interactions between religious communities (their convictions, practices, and structures); and the American contextual trends, such as immigration, political issues, and social drivers like race, ethnicity, or gender. This course is taught with faculty of different traditions or backgrounds, and builds knowledge and skills for study within a multifaith setting.
The Fall 2022 offering, taught by a sociologist and a theologian with extensive experience in religious anthropology methodology, will feature case studies, field work, and ethnography.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Core course
Professor
Class Day & Time
Norton, Allison
R
5:00pm-6:50pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Hybrid Synchronous - F2F
School
Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
TMST8573-01
Dialogue With Indigenous Cultures & Spiritualities
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
The insecurity suffered by the Indigenous Peoples/Nations (IPNs) are occasioined by the lethality of past settler colonialism. Lethal coloniality has succeeded, albeit unevenly, to erase IPNs� identity, inferiorized their beliefs and practices through deterritorializing them from their ancestral homeland. The dialogue with IPNs calls for an �epistemic shift� to a postcolonial theological framework drawing inspiration from Church documents and decolonial indigenous theologies which enriched our Christian faith that advocates the IPNs� values for greater sustainable of the IPNs� cultures and spiritualities that promotes buen vivir with a more flourishing life for otherkinds and humankinds, and the livability of our oikos. The course is more doctoral seminars whence the learning is andragogical (adult learning), and every session is a facilitated (by the instructor) co-learning session so as to to learn from reflecting on each other contextual/context-specific experiences in the light of our weekly assignments.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Fung, Jojo
M
02:00PM-04:50PM
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Doctoral Seminar
School
Boston University Graduate Program in Religion
GRS RN638
Philosophy and Mysticism: Jewish and Islamic
Perspectives
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
A thematic introduction to mysticism and philosophy, with a focus on the dynamics of religious experience. Readings will be drawn from medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; Sufi mysticism and philosophy; Kabbalah, Sufi poetry, Hebrew poetry from the Golden Age of Muslim Spain.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Diana Lobel
TR
12:30PM-1:45PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N/A
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTT 884
Native American Philosophies and Theologies�
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This is a course devoted to the study of key themes, concerns, epistemologies and differences in the study of published or publicly produced philosophical or theological materials by members and scholars of several different North American Indigenous nations. Critical themes include land, place, personhood, spirit, humor, community, adaptation, resistance, and language.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Schneider, Laurel
R
12:30pm-3:15pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N/A
School
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Boston
CH/WM653
History of Christian-Muslim Relations
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This course explores the complex relationship between Christians and Muslims throughout the entire history of Islam, giving attention to the historical and scriptural sources that speak on or about each other and their usage by Christian and Muslim interlocutors. The focus of the course will be to introduce students to the origins of the encounter, the diversity of historical contexts of the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe and North America, and how those encounters have been interpreted. Students will engage in historical research on specific topics to develop their own critical perspectives on Christian-Muslim relations for public engagement. Utilizing film, music, maps, artwork, documents, and travel literature, this course highlights both high and low points between the world�s two largest religions. Special attention is given to the Golden Age of Islam, Medieval Spain, St. Francis, and global demographics of Christians and Muslims.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Johnson, Todd
T
9am-12pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
SYNC
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
NA
School
Hartford International
DI-550
Introduction to Interreligious Studies
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
The gateway course to the MA in Interreligious Studies and a required course for the MA in Peacebuilding curriculum, Introduction to Interreligious Studies is an intersectional, integrative course that promotes deep understanding of worldviews different from one�s own. The course integrates theory and practice in exploring how diverse individuals and groups understand �religion� and how those with differing understandings relate to one another. The course cultivates the dynamic link between theory and practice as it engages in critical investigation of relations between people (whether individuals or groups) who orient around �religion� differently. As an introduction to Interreligious Studies, this course explores such themes as the meaning of �religion,� the discourse of �othering� and theologies of religious difference, comparative theology, interreligious hermeneutics, urban social history methodologies, interreligious dialogue, faith-based collaboration, and more.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Core course
MAP - Core course
Professor
Class Day & Time
Mosher, Lucinda
M
7:00pm-8:50pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Synchronous Online
School
Hartford International
IP-510
Constructive Conflict Intervention
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
This class will train each student to be a mediating presence in interpersonal and community conflicts. The instructor will teach conflict transformation ideology and tools for conflict analysis to build student�s capacity to understand and respond to conflict in ways which advance justice. In conflict transformation-inspired mediation, the primary goal is to improve the relationships between the parties to allow them to chart their own solutions. Students will learn the five-stage mediation process so that they could conduct a complete formal mediation. However, the emphasis will be on understanding the goals and practices of each stage so that they can informally and effectively intervene in the conflicts in their own lives and their own communities. The class will use case studies to build skills in conflict analysis. Students will also practice skills through partner exercises and small group mediation role plays. Students will also be asked to use the skills outside the classroom, and reflect on those experiences verbally or in writing.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAP - Core Course
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Arts of Ministry
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies Elective
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
Professor
Class Day & Time
Milliken, Phoebe
W
4:00pm-6:50pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
On Campus
School
Hartford International
RS-525-2
American Religious Realities
BTI Category
Semester
Interreligious Learning
FA25
As part of the MAIRS curriculum, this course facilitates an understanding of the scope of America�s religious diversity: the nature of its current complexity and factors contributing to its emergence; the mutually influencing interactions between religious communities (their convictions, practices, and structures); and the American contextual trends, such as immigration, political issues, and social drivers like race, ethnicity, or gender. This course is taught with faculty of different traditions or backgrounds, and builds knowledge and skills for study within a multifaith setting.
Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Core course
Professor
Class Day & Time
Norton, Allison
R
5:00pm-6:50pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
Y
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Hybrid Synchronous - Online
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