CSWR Resources: Religion and Identity

The Center for the Study of World Religions continues to investigate the complex relationship between identity and religion at the level of the self, ethnic groups, and nations. Who determines insider and outsider? What about multiple religious identities? Some of the most fruitful CSWR explorations are not available online. They arise from the tension between study and practice in living and working together, in private conversations, and in nonpublic forums such as the 2005 CSWR-sponsored orientation panel, "Borders, Crossings, and Religious Identity," with Harvard Divinity School faculty Francis Clooney, Harvey Cox, and Diana Eck. The topic of religious identity is particularly timely given the increasing need for thoughtful attention to religious pluralism. Diana Eck, an early CSWR affiliate and a former acting director of the CSWR, heads the Pluralism Project, a separate entity associated with Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion. The Center's long-standing interest in interreligious dialogue, and more recent attention to intrareligious dialogue, also explores questions of identity in a pluralistic context. In addition to the following resources available from the CSWR, also relevant are the Religion and Politics resources page and the program theme for 2007-08, Rethinking the Human.

Lectures