This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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History of Religions
History of the 3 Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and of the main different Christianity confessions (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and Protestantism)
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Pedagogical Approaches
New pedagogical approaches to teach history of religion
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Role of Religions in Civilization
How to didactically promote among students of different confessions, the capacity of a critical analysis and understanding of the role played by religions in the history of mankind
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Interreligious Students’ Competences
Set of teaching contents, to be used by teachers to highlight and valorize the universal values of tolerance and universalisms that all Monotheistic religions and religious texts contain to promote and sustain mutual understanding among students
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Managing Multi-Religious Classes
Teaching Sources to help teachers dealing with multicultural and multi-religious classes
Map
An interactive didactical map interactive didactical map giving access to sites with a religious relevance.-
Introduction
A comparative review of the liturgical celebrations, ceremonies and dietary rules existing in the different religions.
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Celebrations
Description and comparative analysis of the celebrations of different religions and confessions
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Ceremonies
Description and comparative analysis of the ceremonies of different religions and confessions
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Dietary Rules
Description and comparative analysis of the dietary rules of different religions and confessions
Events
The Pathway through Religions project has been promoted trough conferences and articles.
Conferences
The Pathway through Religions project was presented in a number of events in order to report about the activities carried out and the results achieved
Press Review
The Pathway through Religions project partnership made contacts with web sites focusing on the fields of educationPartnership
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Contractual Partners
From this section it is possible to access to a description of each contractual partner of the Pathway through Religions project.
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Schools
From this section it is possible to access to the information about the schools involved in the Pathway through Religions Project in the European countries involved.
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Associated Partners
As a result of the exploitation activity a number of associated partners officially joined the project in order to contribute to the improvement of the project impact on their target groups and to ensure the project sustainability by continuing using the project deliverables in the next years.
This section of the Pathway through Religions portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.
Interreligious Students’ Competences
Homepage > Teachers’ Guide > Interreligious Students’ Competences
How to didactically promote among students of different confessions, the capacity of a critical analysis and understanding of the role played by religions in the history of mankind
Building Students’ Interreligious Competences in Communication
and Adaptation in a Cross-Cultural Environment
5. Recognizing and Developing the Positive Potential
The purpose of this section is to offer students tools to understand that one of the fundamental skills to be developed is the ability to identify their positive potential. This concerns individuals and the group / community as a whole. It is not an easy goal because of the widespread loss of the sense of belonging to the community that the new generations live in, sometimes even with respect to the family, often with respect to the town / city / district and the religious community. This problem is linked to that of the creation of a social and religious identity, which families struggle to pass down to young people (both in the case of indigenous families and for immigrant families).
For this reason, in order to start the activity with students, teachers will verify how the students perceive the community (civil, cultural, religious) in which they live, how and to what extent they participate, with what degree of responsibility, what expectations they have with respect to social change, what possibilities they perceive, what obstacles they identify, what fears they experience, etc.
At the same time, and strongly connected to the previous aspect, is the concern about the students’ self-perception, their self-confidence, the degree of self-esteem regarding the possibility of being positive factors of change at a personal and social level, starting from school and family experience.
Hence the opportunity for a work of recovery, using the students’ family and social roots, through the approach to personal, local, regional and national history. It is very difficult, indeed, to deal with other people’s stories, with different ways of living and believing, if there is not a minimum root in a reference identity; there is in fact the risk of having nothing to compare, grasping the differences simply as mere quirks or as a source of insecurity, without understanding the value either of one's own culture / faith or that of others.
The issue of social participation, therefore, is connected to the development of historical competence, which helps to perceive how different peoples and social groups have faced change and how - even thanks to religious experience – they have transmitted essential values in the change of social and economic situations, having had to go through great difficulties (such as migration or discrimination), or real tragedies (such as wars, persecutions, etc.).
This aim is definitely essential so that peoples and communities may become protagonists of a positive coexistence, capable of understanding differences and overcoming prejudices (link to paragraph 1)
For this reason, in order to start the activity with students, teachers will verify how the students perceive the community (civil, cultural, religious) in which they live, how and to what extent they participate, with what degree of responsibility, what expectations they have with respect to social change, what possibilities they perceive, what obstacles they identify, what fears they experience, etc.
At the same time, and strongly connected to the previous aspect, is the concern about the students’ self-perception, their self-confidence, the degree of self-esteem regarding the possibility of being positive factors of change at a personal and social level, starting from school and family experience.
Hence the opportunity for a work of recovery, using the students’ family and social roots, through the approach to personal, local, regional and national history. It is very difficult, indeed, to deal with other people’s stories, with different ways of living and believing, if there is not a minimum root in a reference identity; there is in fact the risk of having nothing to compare, grasping the differences simply as mere quirks or as a source of insecurity, without understanding the value either of one's own culture / faith or that of others.
The issue of social participation, therefore, is connected to the development of historical competence, which helps to perceive how different peoples and social groups have faced change and how - even thanks to religious experience – they have transmitted essential values in the change of social and economic situations, having had to go through great difficulties (such as migration or discrimination), or real tragedies (such as wars, persecutions, etc.).
This aim is definitely essential so that peoples and communities may become protagonists of a positive coexistence, capable of understanding differences and overcoming prejudices (link to paragraph 1)
Online Resources
- History without frontiers. For an intercultural teaching of historyBased on an cross-cultural and social pedagogical approach, the text develops possible teaching approaches in an cross-cultural perspective, as part of the process of building the identity of children and young people, with some examples from different countries
- https://uri.org/Official site of United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. The purpose of the United Religions Initiative is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.
- Vincenzo Amendolagine, Il piacere di essere sè stessi. L’identità sociale tra essere e dover essereThe text, by Vincenzo Amendolagine, shows the theme of social identity and its building from a psychological point of view
- https://rm.coe.int/1680492f87About interreligious dialogue at school
Journal of Theories and Research in Education 10, 1 (2015). Special
Issue. Religion, Conflict and Education. Edited by Stephen McKinney and Federico Zannon - Centro Astalli, Dialogo interreligioso a scuolaThe audio-visual resource is an example of the enhancement of positive possibilities through interreligious dialogue in the school environment.
- Il dialogo interreligioso. Educazione interculturaleThe video introduces an interview with the African theologian Nkafu Nkomnkia which illustrates the use of the myth to transmit the fundamental values
- Il Dalai Lama agli studenti: è il vostro turno per fare un mondo miglioreThe article summarizes the meeting-interview of Milan university students with the Dalai Lama on the role of young people in triggering positive mechanisms in their communities
- Materiali e percorsi per la ricerca di storia familiareTools of knowledge and personal data searches, in connection with the state archives. Similar institutions exist in other European countries as well
- Personal and family HistoryExample of education strategy from personal to family history
Practical Activity
- Improving is possible!The cross-curricular research (History, Economics, Mathematics, Religion) suggests the reconstruction of family histories in the course of several generations, considering a series of variables: origin and residence, job, marriage, migrations, level of study…This activity could be considered as a comparison of local traditions, a case scenario where to look for and focus on common situations. Through the communities and their main activities and practices, students could connect their personal history with tradition, thus acquiring a deeper sense of their identity.
