This article was downloaded by: [University of Arizona]On: 17 December 2014, At: 11:30Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Religious Education: Theofficial journal of the ReligiousEducation AssociationPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/urea20

Editorial: “Looking Forward:Negotiating Religious Identityin Public Spaces”Jack L. SeymourPublished online: 10 Feb 2012.

To cite this article: Jack L. Seymour (2012) Editorial: “Looking Forward: NegotiatingReligious Identity in Public Spaces”, Religious Education: The official journal of theReligious Education Association, 107:1, 1-4, DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2012.641445

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2012.641445

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f A

rizo

na]

at 1

1:30

17

Dec

embe

r 20

14

EDITORIAL: “LOOKING FORWARD: NEGOTIATINGRELIGIOUS IDENTITY IN PUBLIC SPACES”

As I complete this editorial, the 2011 meeting of the Religious Educa-tion Association (REA) in Toronto is one week away. (Of course, youare reading this almost four months after that conference and haveseen the addresses and papers on the website.) Yearly conferenceslike “Brain Matters” are central to REA, providing an essential timeof networking, learning, and sharing research that scholars in the fieldwould not want to miss. The conferences set trajectories for the field.Future conferences promise to continue the rich tradition of learningtogether. The 2012 conference in Atlanta will focus on how religiouseducation contributes to and learns from freedom movements, rootedin religious conviction, around the world.

Yet, this essay is not an advertisement for REA conferences; rather,it is a report on the tasks of REA for the field of religious education.I build these reflections on decisions of the executive committee ofREA. Let me “back into” those decisions by tracking the conversationat the Board retreat.

First, we explored, as best we could, questions facing our field—asscholars in religious education; as administrators in theological schools;as teachers; as congregational educators; as participants in particularfaith communities with deep traditions, specific commitments, anddefinitions of truth; as public citizens; and as students of theology,culture, meaning-making, education, and religious life.

Second, we focused on how these issues could be addressed. Wenoticed that, almost to a person, we had first attended REA becausea mentor invited us. We named mentoring, hospitality, and network-ing as the context that nourishes scholarship. We all knew that toooften professional meetings can become competitions where personschallenge rather than listen. Yet, REA has often contrasted with that.REA, when it has succeeded, has created networks of conversationand commitment.

To get specific, we defined the scholarship we uniquely addressas “identity formation”: How is identity formed in faith communities?Yet, more than that, we named that each of us has to learn to nego-tiate the multiple identities that we carry—as members of religious

Religious Education Copyright C© The Religious Education AssociationVol. 107 No. 1 January–February ISSN: 0034-4087 print

DOI: 10.1080/00344087.2012.641445

1

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f A

rizo

na]

at 1

1:30

17

Dec

embe

r 20

14

2 EDITORIAL

communities, as members of nations who are often vying, as membersof advocacy groups, and as members of cultural or ethnic groups. Or,in other words, REA is about religious identity in public spaces.

Frankly, that is why many religious educators serve as deans,program directors, and administrators of schools, congregations, pro-grams, and advocacy groups. We seek to help build faith communitiesand simultaneously help people live amid the terrains of multipleidentities with some sense of hope and common work. Yet, multipleidentities, religious traditions, and deep commitments all tend to di-vide. How do we educate persons to build and negotiate identities?None of us fully know. Yet, we do know that premature unity is simplynot an answer and neither is ignoring difference. Conflicting identi-ties engender fear. Empowering networks to address the conflictingrealities of forming faith identity and negotiating multiple identities isat the core of the Religious Education Association.

The REA executive committee made commitments about struc-tures to empower these networks. Let me name five:

1. Significant annual conferences become places for networking—around topics such a brain research, freedom movements, the im-pact of technology. While there are any number of conferencesone can attend, nowhere is there the mix of persons committedto education, committed to religious conviction, seeking to under-stand the impact of religion on public life, and sensitive to religiousdiversity.

2. This journal, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, is a place of network-ing where substantial research into identity formation and reli-gious commitment is published. Last year we received essays forconsideration from 18 countries and four religious traditions. Wepublished essays from 10 countries and three religious traditions.

3. A new book series, HORIZONS in Religious Education, is beingexplored to publish significant new scholarship. While we will knowmore after November’s meeting, the plan is for one or two booksand e-books to be published each year beginning as soon as 2013.

4. Enhancing the website www.religiouseducation.net is a commit-ment. Look at what has already changed! How can it become amore open source for networking about forming religious faith andnegotiating identities? Already it is the place where all of the backissues of the scholarship of RELIGIOUS EDUCATION is found,as well as all of the papers from past meetings since 2001—oncontextual pedagogies, education for peace and justice, the power

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f A

rizo

na]

at 1

1:30

17

Dec

embe

r 20

14

EDITORIAL 3

of story, and practical theology, to name a few. The website alsoconnects to a book store of publications of several of our members.

5. Finally, REA will support those graduate programs training fu-ture religious educators—an international network. We know thatmost of these schools have a particular religious identity, yet theyalso seek to address the terrains in which we do our work. A be-ginning meeting of PhD program directors occurs in the fall of2011.

Members of the executive committee concluded that REA needsto be about networking—extending the hospitality and buildingrelationships—of persons addressing the issues of being religious inpublic spaces. Here is both our challenge and our opportunity. Fornothing is more important than assisting persons to know how forma-tion in faith occurs—how attention is given to the deepest and abidingcommitments that give life, build community, and sustain the earth.Nothing is also more important than assisting persons to know howwe can seek to negotiate the terrains of our multiple identities andmultiple commitments in the public space.

This issue of the journal extends that network. We begin with Bev-erly Johnson-Miller’s memorial to the life of Harold Burgess. Many ofus remember how Harold communicated so passionately his religiousconvictions as well as how he sought to build bridges across historicdivides. Peer-reviewed essays follow examining several topics aboutidentity and education:

• theological convictions at the heart of Christian education,• approaches to inter-faith education in secular societies,• attention to the connection between interreligious learning and

peace education,• the recovery of a Jewish tradition to assist us in a “time of scarcity,”

and• the development of ethical knowledge in a Jewish educational

setting.

I thank our authors for their scholarship: Fred Edie, Julia Ipgrave,Micah Lapidus, Marjoke Rietveld-van Wingerden, Ina ter Avest, WimWesterman, and Orly Shapira-Lishchinsky. Moreover, our book re-viewers help us to attend to being Muslim in a public school, tonurturing children in a diverse world, and to prayer in education.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f A

rizo

na]

at 1

1:30

17

Dec

embe

r 20

14

4 EDITORIAL

Thanks to our reviewers: Najwa Aown, David Csinos, and TammyWiens-Sorge.

I think the REA executive committee has it right. Religious educa-tors serve as scholars, administrators, teachers, and advocates becausewe know how important it is for people to negotiate the actual terrainsthey travel daily. We know that multiple identities, religious tradi-tions, and deep commitments all tend to divide. We also know thatformation in religious faith and commitment are essential for peopleto engage the profound questions and commitments shaping living.Our task: Living religious identities in public spaces where multipleidentities vie. That is what the network of REA seeks to do. Help usenhance those networks.

Jack L. Seymour, Editor

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f A

rizo

na]

at 1

1:30

17

Dec

embe

r 20

14