Decolonizing Interreligious Education: Developing Theologies of Accountability

Abstract

Decolonizing Interreligious Educationexplores multiple injustices, focusing on the lived experience, unaddressed grief, and acts of resistance and resilience of populations most impacted by coloniality and white supremacy. It lifts up the voices of those speaking from embodied experience of suffering multiple oppressions based on negative constructs of race, religion, skin color, nationality, etc. Engaging ideological critique, construction of knowledge beyond dominant lenses, and acts of resistance are presented from the perspective of those most impacted by systemic injustice. It challenges interreligious education to frame encounters where the impact of intergeneration trauma and the realities of power differentials are recognized and the contributions of all voices are truly integrated. It challenges the fields of religious and interreligious education to imagine a broadened view that includes recognition of the role played by religion in harm done and to take a leadership role in engaging processes of accountability and redress.