Change agent teaching for interreligious collaboration in Black Lives Matter times. (12th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Miles‐Tribble, Valerie
• Is Part Of: Teaching theology & religion. Volume 23:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 140
• Page End: 150
• Publication Date: 2020-10-12
• Subjects: Change agent -- interreligious -- pedagogy -- public witness -- theoethics -- theopraxis -- womanist; Religion -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Theology -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 200.71
• DOI: 10.1111/teth.12556
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-4868

Abstract

Abstract: Interreligious discourse opens ways to discover how shared justice values and ethical actions can inform our responses amid the unjust disparities that privilege some and marginalize many. At present, we live in a public landscape of societal dissonance that heightens the urgency for people with theological grounding to bridge collaborative public witness among varied religious traditions. I describe "Black Lives Matter times" as a present expansive era in which the stew of public tension, stirred by decades of structural disparities, link religion and politics to an agenda to dismantle equitable public policies after the Civil Rights era. My goal for writing Change Agent Church in Black Lives Matter Times: Urgency for Action (2020) is to encourage practitioners and educators to prepare for public justice ministry that I call public witness . The book offers analytical discussion points for critical reflection and a toolkit of process methods to mobilize for public justice roles and strategic actions as collaborative change agents. In this article, as in the book, public witness is described as "faith‐informed commitment to take action in solidarity with the marginalized, and to help mobilize change" (2). As the title conveys, the term change agent signifies "the ways in which clergy and interfaith leaders could exemplify a public justice ethic as motivational catalyst" (6). To prepare for "change agent teaching" shifts from teacher‐centered lectures to a learner‐centered focus to build core competencies for interactive relational engagement. Change agent teaching of religion and theology can connect faith and praxis, as theopraxis, to frame justice components of public witness. As well, interactive learning helps to develop competencies under two rubrics: contextualization and conscientization. (a) Contextualization connects experiential narratives to respect lived experiences at the intersections of our individual and collective identity. (b) Conscientization raises awareness with inclusive scrutiny of issues to articulate how theological and ethical values or theoethics influence our actions. This article focuses on pedagogical approaches and process methods to teach and learn about the change agent role of public witness to support an ethos of restorative justice as understood across faith traditions.