Oddbjørn Leirvik

Religious education, communal identity and national politics in the Muslim world

This article discusses models for religious education in school in (parts of) the Muslim world and the implied relation between self and other, confessional and national identity. The question of how current models and discussions respond to globalized issues in education is also discussed. The last part of the article identifies triggering factors behind some recent attempts at establishing more inclusive ways of teaching about religion and ethics in school.This article discusses models for religious education in school in (parts of) the Muslim world and the implied relation between self and other, confessional and national identity. The question of how current models and discussions respond to globalized issues in education is also discussed. The last part of the article identifies triggering factors behind some recent attempts at establishing more inclusive ways of teaching about religion and ethics in school.

Models of Religious Education in the Muslim World: Current Developments and Debates on How to Teach Religion and Ethics in Public Schools

This chapter discusses different models for religious education in the Muslim world, in light of the wider issue of teaching for tolerance in Muslim majority societies. Linking up with current debates about more inclusive ways of teaching religion and ethics in school, the author will also discuss the implied relationship (in different models for religious education) between confessional identity, equal citizenship and national identity. The role of both public and private schools (including the madrasa sector) will be considered. Countries referred to include Bosnia, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine, Pakistan and Indonesia.

‘Anthropologists are Talking’:About Islam, Muslims and Law in Contemporary Europe

Abstract In contemporary Europe, Islam and Muslims are rightly or wrongly often perceived as the ‘other’. Among the central foci of concern in many Western European countries with a significant presence of Muslims, the law has featured prominently in recent years. What can anthropology tell us about the multiple ways in which European Muslims engage with liberal and secular laws and the state? Perhaps no other contemporary scholar in anthropology has written more extensively about these issues than Professor John R. Bowen. As part of an ongoing series in public anthropology, Professor Bowen engaged in a public conversation with Professor Oddbjørn Leirvik and Postdoctoral Fellow Sindre Bangstad at The House of Literature in Oslo, Norway on 27 September 2011. Due to technical failures, the conversation had to be re-recorded at the Grand Hotel in Oslo on 28 September 2011.

Islamic university theology

In the present article, the author discusses the emergence of new centres and chairs in Islamic theology in the Northern European context. Being mainly explorative, the article seeks to formulate a theoretical framework for analysing what happens to Islamic theology when it becomes integrated into a Northern European, secular university setting. Do we see a shift in emphasis from religion-specific traditionalism to de-culturalized universalism and interfaith dialogue? Key notions in the author’s analysis are formatting, university theology and the three publics (David Tracy) of theology. Empirical examples of how Islamic theology is currently being done (or formatted) in a European university setting are taken from two German centres for Islamic theology. With reference to publications originating from these centres, the author discusses different, but overlapping discourses in emerging Islamic university theologies – one centred on general subjects such as ethics, hermeneutics and humanism, another oriented towards “innovation in tradition”.

Interreligious University Theologies, Christian/Islamic

ABSTRACT With reference to the establishment of new chairs and centres for Islamic theology at Northern European universities, this article discusses how Christian and Islamic university theology may develop into a multi- or interreligious way of doing theology. Will these initiatives change the ways in which theology is done in academia, through institutionalized cooperation between theologians from different traditions? Having introduced the academic field of ‘interreligious studies’ the author further defines the term ‘interreligious theology’ in relation to confessional theology and comparative theology and argues that interreligious ways of doing theology are characterized by their relational and interactive approach, with a strong emphasis on agency. The article further explores the institutionalized aspect of interreligious theology – citing the classical example of Muslims and Christians reflecting together in medieval Baghdad, the late modern practice of ‘scriptural reasoning’, and the pluralization of theology in contemporary academia. Having noted the tension between inter-and trans-religious ways of doing theology, the article critically explores the metaphors of ‘third space’, ‘spaces in between’, and ‘home’.

Towards a Relational and Humanizing Theology: A Christian-Muslim Dialogue

The notion of ‘theology of religion(s),’ as it has been developed in the last decades, commonly refers to the self-reflection of a particular religious tradition (mostly, Christianity) when faced with religious pluralism. Alan Race used the expression ‘Christian theology of religions’ when in 1983 he introduced the oft-cited triad of exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism (Christians and Religious Pluralism, 1983). Whereas Jacques Dupuis (1997) aimed at ‘a Christian theology of religious pluralism,’ Harold Coward (2000) covered six religions when some years later he wrote about Pluralism in the World Religions. Paul Knitter moved from critically surveying ‘Christian attitudes toward the world religions’ (cf. the subtitle of No Other Name, 1985) to presenting ‘theologies of religions’ in a more general sense (Introducing Theologies of Religions, 2002— note the double plural). Theologies of religions are created in response to religious pluralism— either in the form of traditional plurality (where different faiths coexist as entities that can be neatly separated) or modern pluralism (where the borders are more fluid). In the context of modern pluralism, traditional positions of dominion are challenged by modern ideals of equality and non-discrimination, and inherited stereotypes of the other are challenged by everyday interaction across religious divides and by interreligious friendships. All major religions have their own ways of dealing with traditional plurality. But modern pluralism poses different kinds of challenges, which cut deeper and have potentially more wide-ranging consequences for the religious traditions. In what follows, I will reflect as a Christian theologian in dialogue with Islam. These two traditions cannot be neatly separated, intertwined as they are in history and contemporary societies. With regard to overarching theological reasoning, ‘Christianity’ (as an ecumenical whole) is certainly