Resources for Participants
For a complete listing of available resources, including many selected readings and a complete schedule of events, please visit the links below. A password is necessary to visit these areas.
Using Primary Sources in the Classroom
The following resources, from the Teaching With Primary Sources program at MTSU, may aid in incorporating primary sources in the classroom.
- Analyzing Primary Sources
- Analyzing Books and Printed Materials
- Primary Source Analysis Tool
- Lesson Plan: The Constitution
- Teacher Guide: The Constitution
Browse the digital collections at the MTSU Walker Library for more primary sources.
Selected Resources
Below you will find selected resources from the Bridging Cultures workshop. For a complete listing, please click here.
History: National Historic Context
The Founding Fathers, the First Amendment, and the Starting Point for U.S. Discussions of Religion and Politics
Distinguished Humanities Scholar Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, Ph.D.
Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, John C. Danforth Center
on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis
Provided Faculty Readings:
- Charles L. Cohen and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., Gods in America: Religious Pluralism in the United States (Oxford U Press, 2013), 1-18.
- Frank Lambert, Religion in American Politics: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2010).
For Use in General Education Classrooms:
- Charles C. Haynes, Religion in American History: What to Teach and How, at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/madison/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/religioninamericanhistory.pdf (contains documents, study questions, and advice on how to use these with students).
- George Washington, letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island,
Aug. 18, 1790, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135.
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, Jan. 1, 1802, http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html.
Additional Sources:
- Randall Balmer, First Freedom: The Fight for Religious Freedom (Hendersonville, TN: Covenant Communications, 2012); The Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond (Baylor U Press, 2010) ; Religion in Twentieth Century America (Oxford University Press, 2001); Blessed Assurance: A History of Evangelicalism in America (Beacon Press, 1999).
- Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Spirit of the Law: Religious Voices and the Constitution in Modern America (Harvard U Press, 2010).
- Chris Beneke, Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2006). [Dissertation available through Walker Library JSTOR.]
- Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore, The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State, updated edition (W.W. Norton, 2005), pp. 26-45. [eBook.]
- David Sehat, The Myth of American Religious Freedom (Oxford U Press, 2011), pp. 1-69.
- Denise A. Spellberg, Jefferson’s Qu’ran: Islam and the Founders (New York: Random House, 2013).
Digital Resources:
- On Common Ground, The Pluralism Project, Harvard University, pluralism.org/ocg/. [The About page provides a good overview of all the resources throughout the website: http://www.pluralism.org/ocg/about.]
- Divining America, Religion in American History, National Humanities Center, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/divam.htm.
- PBS documentary, The First Freedom (2012), http://video.pbs.org/video/2291371326/.
- Religion and the Constitution in the U.S., John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, http://rap.wustl.edu/.
Religion and Ethics: Religious Freedom, Pluralism, and Expression
Overview of Religion and Ethics, including Case Studies of Religious Freedom and Freedom of Expression
Distinguished Humanities Scholar M. Christian Green, Ph.D., J.D., M.T.S.
Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University
Provided Faculty Readings:
- Leila Ahmed, "Backlash: The Veil, the Burka, and the Clamor of War," Ch. 9, in Leila Ahmed, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America (Yale U Press, 2011), 199-232 .
- William Braniff, “Communities Must Work Together to Combat Extremism,” New York Times, June 24, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/24/charleston-and-the-threat-of-homegrown-hate-groups/communities-must-work-together-to-combat-extremism. —Copy in blue workshop folder—
- Christian Green and John Witte, "Religion," in The Oxford Handbook on International Human Rights Law (Oxford U Press, 2013) , 9-31, pre-publication version available at: https://www.academia.edu/2088012/_Religion_with_John_Witte_Jr._in_Oxford_Handbook_on_Human_Rights_Law_ed._ed._Dinah_Shelton_Oxford_University_Press_2013_.
- Simran Jeet Jingh, “A Muslim Woman Beat Abercrombie & Fitch: Why Her Supreme Court Victory is a Win for All Americans” The Washington Post, June 1, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/06/01/a-muslim-woman-beat-abercrombie-fitch-why-her-supreme-court-victory-is-a-win-for-all-americans/.
- Garry Trudeau, “The Abuse of Satire,” The Atlantic, April 11, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/the-abuse-of-satire/390312/.
- John Witte Jr. and M. Christian Green, eds., Religion and Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2011).
Additional Sources:
- Reza Aslan, “Bill Maher Isn’t the Only One Who Misunderstands Religion,” New York Times, October 8, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/why-garry-trudeau-is-wrong-about-charlie-hebdo/390336/.
- Andrew Buncombe, “American Muslims Raise $30,000 to help repair black churches destroyed by fire,” The Independent (United Kingdom), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/american-muslims-raise-30000-to-help-repair-black-churches-destroyed-by-fire-10375704.html.
- Diana L. Eck, “American Religious Pluralism: Civic and Theological Discourse,” in: Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism, ed. Thomas Banchoff (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2007), 243-70; “‘Is Our God Listening?’: Exclusivism, Inclusivism, and Pluralism,” Ch. 7, in D.L. Eck, Encountering God (Boston: Beacon Press, 2003), 166-99; A New Religious America (New York: HarperCollins, 2001). The former is strong scholarship, the latter a more accessible read.
- David Frum, “Why Garry Trudeau Is Wrong About Charlie Hebdo,” The Atlantic, April 13, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/why-garry-trudeau-is-wrong-about-charlie-hebdo/390336/.
- Christian Green, “Between Blasphemy and Critique: Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech” (review essay), Journal of Law and Religion29:2 (February 2014): 176-96; “From Third Wave to Third Generation: Feminism, Faith, and Human Rights,” in Feminism, Law, and Religion, ed. Marie A. Failinger, Elizabeth R. Schiltz, and Susan J. Stabile (Ashgate Publishing, 2013): 141-71. https://mchristiangreen.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/015_chapter_6_failinger.pdf; “Burqas, Blobs, and Bans in ‘la belle France,” Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim, Secular (Notre Dame, IN: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, May 12, 2011). http://blogs.nd.edu/contendingmodernities/2011/05/12/burqas-blobs-and-bans-in-la-belle-france/.
- Jonathan M. Katz and Richard Pérez-Peña, “In Chapel Hill Shootings of 3 Muslims, A Question of Motive,” New York Times, February 11, 2015.
- Ziya Meral, “The Question of Theodicy and Jihad,” War on the Rocks blog, February 26, 2015, http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/the-question-of-theodicy-and-jihad/.
- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations, 2nd ed. (New York: Continuum, 2003).
- Stephen Prothero, God is Not One (New York: HarperCollins, 2010); Religious Literacy (New York: HarperCollins, 2007) .
- Anna Sauerbrey, “Will the Burqa Be Banned in Berlin?” New York Times, June 7, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/opinion/anna-sauerbrey-will-the-burqa-be-banned-in-berlin.html?_r=0.
- United States Supreme Court, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch, decided July 15, 2015, http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-86_p86b.pdf; Snyder v. Phelps, decided March 2, 2011 (discussed and quoted in M. Christian Green, “Between Blasphemy and Critique”). Text of Decision: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-751.pdf, Educational Activity: http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/facts-and-case-summary-snyder-v-phelps.
- Jeremy Waldron, The Harm in Hate Speech (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 2012), summarized and quoted in M. Christian Green, “Between Blasphemy and Critique.”
- Ehab Zariyeh, “Imam of Torched Houston Mosque Meets Islamophobia with Love,” Al-Jazeera America, February 20, 2015, http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/20/houston-mosque-set-ablaze-responds-to-hate-with-love.html.
Digital Resources:
- Combatting Religious Prejudice, Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, https://tanenbaum.org/programs/interreligious-affairs/.
- Justice with Michael Sandel, Harvard University, http://www.justiceharvard.org.
- Teaching Resources, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, http://raac.iupui.edu/teaching-resources/.
Philosophy: Creating Cultures of Debate across Cultural and Religious Boundaries
Key questions to be addressed include, Is it possible to discuss religion, in particular religious prescriptions such as divine commandments, rationally? Are disagreements on fundamental questions valuable? Can we be certain that what we believe to be right actually is right? Can we institute a culture of debate as an intellectual space that allows us to discuss issues we deeply care about, but also deeply disagree on? How are the beliefs and values we hold contingent, the outcome of our upbringing? Does the internal diversity of religious traditions require deliberating and choosing between competing interpretations?
Distinguished Humanities Scholar Carlos Fraenkel, Ph.D.
The James McGill Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies, McGill University
Provided Faculty Readings:
- Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), The Deliverance from Error, pp. 19-27 of the English translation, http://www.ghazali.org/books/gz-wat-del.pdf.
- Plato, Euthyphro
- John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (excerpts in the Broadview Anthology of Social and Political Thought, pp. 895 ff.) [Public domain, full text available online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34901/34901-h/34901-h.htm; other formats (PDF, Kindle) are available for download as well, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34901.]
- Carlos Fraenkel, Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World (Princeton U Press, 2015), Preface and Ch. 6 (Chs. 1 and 5 as supplementary reading).
Additional Sources:
- John Locke, Letter on Toleration, http://www.constitution.org/jl/tolerati.txt.
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Norton, 2010) ; The Ethics of Identity (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 2005).
- Martha C. Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education (Cambridge: Harvard U Press, 1997).
- Charles Taylor, Multiculturalism (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1994) ; Sources of the Self (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1989).
Literature: Transformations
The Power of Literature to Change Lives
Distinguished Humanities Scholar Emily Auerbach, Ph.D.
Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
Director of the Odyssey Project, University of Wisconsin
Provided Faculty Readings:
- Emily Auerbach, ed., Odyssey Project Course Reader (Madison: UW Odyssey Project, 2014).
- Emily Auerbach and Kegan Carter, ed., Transformations: 10 Years of the UW Odyssey Project (Madison: U. Wisconsin Board of Regents, 2012).
For Use in General Education Classrooms:
- Collection of selected readings compiled by Emily Auerbach for Odyssey Project Course Reader (Madison: UW Odyssey Project, 2014), including
- William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience—attacks religious tyranny and celebrates notion of love/brotherhood
- Courage to Write sampler of early women authors—poems and prose that celebrate the courage of women who wrote at a time when they were told to be silent, including Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley, Emma Lazarus, Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, and others—poetry by Emily Dickinson in particular explores religious questions, strictures, and acting in faith
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol—second chance, redemption, charity. [Full text, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm; http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46.]
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative—escaped 19th century slave recalls his flight from brutal slavery, his struggles to learn to read, his recognition that Christianity could be misused by slave owners. [Full text, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23/23-h/23-h.htm; http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23.]
- Plato, Allegory of the Cave—power of enlightenment, getting out of the cave of ignorance.
[Full text of The Republic, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1497/1497-h/1497-h.htm; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497.]
- Thoreau, Civil Disobedience [full text, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/71/71-h/71-h.htm; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71], and Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail [http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html]—a higher law than the law of the land
- Walt Whitman’s poetry—celebrates inclusivity, diversity, embracing cultures. [Full text: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8388/pg8388.html; other formats: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8388.]
Additional Sources:
- Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (New York: Random House, 1969), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1934/1934-h/1934-h.htm; other formats: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1934. Moving autobiography.
- Anne Frank, Diary of Anne Frank (1952), and Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah’s Key (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007). Holocaust experiences.
- Toni Morrison, Recitatif (1983). A short story of black and white girls meeting at five different stages in their life; Morrison’s short story doesn’t tell us which girl is black and which is white, so the story creates an interesting awareness of our own stereotypes.
- Alice Walker, The Color Purple (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1970). Discussion of finding God in nature, racism, sexism, recovery from abuse.
- Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala (London: Orion House, 2013) . Autobiography by Pakistani teenager shot by Taliban.
Digital Resources:
- University of Wisconsin Madison, Forward Motion – The Odyssey Project, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqddlNO90bs&feature=youtu.be.
- PBS American Experience, Freedom Riders documentary (2011), http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/watch.
Overview and Reflections, Rip Patton, community leader, civil rights activist, and original member of the Nashville Student Movement and a Freedom Rider
Video footage of Dr. Patton on the Oprah Winfrey Show
Civil Rights Driving Tour, North Nashville
Mr. Rip Patton, Narrator, Historian, and Tour Guide
Mr. Patton speaks regularly on his years as a young civil rights activist with the Nashville Student Movement and his experiences as a Freedom Rider that resulted in his incarceration at Parchman prison, the Mississippi state penitentiary. He did civic work, he says, because “It was the right time,” and he was guided by these spiritual words:
- Romans 12:1-2: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
- Isaiah 6:8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Heream Send me.
- Psalm 23:4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thouart with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
History: Integration of Global and Local
Tying It All Together
Distinguished Humanities Scholar Ronald Messier, Ph.D.
Director, Moroccan-American Archaeological Project in Aghmat, Morocco; Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Middle Tennessee State University
Professor Messier will address classical Islam versus Islam in America today; Jesus, one man, two faiths; and the context of the mosque
controversy in Tennessee, issues and conflicts in our communities, and how we as professors
in the classroom can positively contribute.
Link to Additional Reading List
Provided Faculty Reading:
- John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks for Islam? (New York: Gallup Press, 2007). Results of Gallup’s World Poll.
Additional Sources:
- Karen Armstrong. A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993) ; Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992).
- Loye Ashton, “Defending Religious Diversity and Tolerance in America Today: Lessons from Fethullah Gulen,” Proceedings of Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice, Rice University, November 12-13, 2005, http://fethullahgulenconference.org/houston/read.php?p=defending-religious-diversity-tolerance-america-today-lessons-fethullah-gulen.
- Kenneth Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008).
- Gregory Barker, ed., Jesus in the World’s Faiths (New York: Orbis Books, 2005).
- James A. Bill and John Alden Williams, Roman Catholics and Shi‘i Muslims: Prayer, Passion, and Politics (Chapel Hill: U North Carolina Press, 2002).
- John L. Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam (Oxford University Press, 2002).
- Mary Evins, “Moderation in All Things: Middle of the Road Politics for Progress, People, and Public Service,” in Birdwell and Dickinson, eds., People of the Upper Cumberland (Knoxville: U Tenn. Press, 2015). Caustic Protestant v. Catholic religious invective in Tennessee during 1960 Kennedy presidential campaign.
- Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard U Press, 2001).
- Charles Kimball, Striving Together: A Way Forward in Christian-Muslim Relations (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991).
- Ali Merad, Christian Hermit in an Islamic World: A Muslim’s View of Charles de Foucauld (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999).
- Ronald Messier, One Man, Two Faiths: Jesus, A Dialogue between Christians and Muslims (Murfreesboro, TN: Twin Oaks, 2010).
- Chawkat Moucarry, The Prophet and the Messiah: An Arab Christian’s Perspective on Islam and Christianity (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001).
- Bob Smietana, “Religious Conflict Isn’t New to Murfreesboro: Catholic Immigrants’ Plans Fueled Protest in Murfreesboro in 1929,” Tennessean, Oct. 24, 2010.
- Houston Smith, “Jesus and the World’s Religions,” in Jesus at 2000, ed. Marcus J. Borg, 107-20 (Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, 1998).
- Stella Suberman, The Jew Store: A Family Memoir (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1998). Historical account of Jewish family in rural West Tennessee.
- Rowan Williams, “To Be Worthy of the God We Worship,” 9/11 Speech at Al-Azhar, http://rowanwilliams.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/1299/archbishops-address-at-al-azhar-al-sharif-cairo.
- Alan Wisdom, “Guidelines for Christian-Muslim Dialogue,” Institute on Religion and Democracy, April 2003.
Digital Resources:
- Knoxville Jewish Alliance, “The KJA Barbara Winick Bernstein Archives of the Jewish Community of East Tennessee,” http://jewishknoxville.org/archives.
- BeCause Foundation, “Welcome to Shelbyville,” documentary (2010). [Clip only, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/welcome-to-shelbyville/; info about public screenings, http://www.welcometoshelbyvillefilm.com/dvd/.]
- Next Door Neighbors, WNPT, http://ndn.wnpt.org/documentaries/; https://youtu.be/1KTS8B6J4w4.Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door, CNN documentary with Soledad O’Brien, https://vimeo.com/49322512; educator guide, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/studentnews/03/24/unwelcome.muslims.next.door.guide/.