Abstract
This article argues that, considering the current trends of polarization between adherents of different religions, courses on world religions should no longer focus only on the transmission of knowledge, but include material from human rights studies, inter‐religious dialogue, and peace studies as well. According to the author, due to their specific charters, confessional educational institutions (including institutions of higher education) in particular are well placed to use this interdisciplinary approach, since it changes academic learning about other religions and can lead to profound transformations, connecting the learning process with the core teachings of religions.
Notes
1. In a March 2006 Washington Post poll, 46% of Americans expressed unfavourable views about Islam (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp‐dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802).
2. These rules were published for the first time in 1983 in ‘Dialogue decalogue: ground rules for interreligious dialogue’, in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 20 (1), pp. 1–4, and have been republished many times since, among others in Swidler (Citation2004), pp. 772–775.