Religious Studies: A Global View

The objective of the Faculty of Quran and Islamic Studies is to produce

graduates with wide-ranging knowledge and deepened religious awareness

who, as teachers or as court counselors, are capable of contributing to,

and strengthening Arabic society and its cultural and religious bonds.

This statement reminds us of the two central principles of Islamic education

developed in the medieval period (Affes 2000: 40–41) and demonstrates that

these principles are still alive.

Bethlehem University, a Christian institution, offers within its Faculty of

Arts a bachelor degree in religious studies ‘that concentrates on the study

of Christianity from a Catholic and ecumenical point of view’. As at other

NAWA institutions, this degree combines confessional and non-confessional

approaches. It is different in that it requires all fourth-year students to take

the course ‘Cultural Religious Studies’, an introduction and comparison of

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that also discusses their role in contemporary

society. The department also offers optional courses on Islam (2 levels),

Judaism, philosophy, and political science.

The situation in Jordanis very different. First, the population is relatively

small. Only one university offers courses which resemble the modern academic

study of religions: the Shar¥‘ah College at the University of Jordan. Its under-

graduate program in the foundations of religion (usl al-d¥n) mostly covers

Islam, but it includes a course on ‘Beliefs, Comparative Religions, and Mission’,

another on ‘Contemporary Schools of Thought’, and a third on ‘Comparative

Religions’. The last course includes the study of two monotheistic religions

(Judaism and Christianity) and two ‘natural religions’ (Hinduism and

Buddhism). The aim is to ensure that students will be able to situate themselves

as Muslims vis-à-vis these four major religions. In the late 1980s I attended

the course on comparative religions. While I cannot generalize on the basis of

my limited experience, I did come to understand the limits of assessing the

spread or depth of the modern academic study of religions solely on the basis

of course titles or descriptions.

A very different institution, also based in Amman, is the Royal Institute for

Inter-Faith Studies founded in 1994. Its research, publications, and activities

reflect the best academic standards and would normally be found within a

university structure. However, its private character and intimate size allow a

degree of freedom of thought and organization that rarely exists within much

larger institutions that may be prey to less academically oriented societal and

political influences. This research institute offers two programs: one in Arabic

‘on the study and documentation of all subjects pertaining to Christianity and

Muslim-Christian relations’, and one in English on ‘questions relating to

religious and cultural diversity in the world at large’. The Institute also publishes

two journals, Al-Nashra, an Arabic quarterly, and the biannual Bulletin of the

Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (BRIIFS), refereed by internationally

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PATRICE BRODEUR