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So we have enough time for Bruce Grelley. Welcome to his session.

It's a pleasure to introduce him a little bit to you.

Bruce Grelly did his BA in Religious Studies and his MA in Theology, which is already an interesting combination, Religious Studies and Theology.

He holds a PhD from Chicago Divinity School in the fields of Ethics and Society,

and is Professor of the Department of Comparative Religion and Humanities at the California State University at Chico.

His teaching and research are focused on comparative ethics, religion and public education, and religion and politics.

He directs the Religion and Public Education Project at Chico State,

and he is a member of the Nationwide Steering Committee for the California 3Rs Project, you may have heard of that,

Rights, Responsibilities and Respect 3Rs Project, a program for finding common ground on issues of religion and values, education in public schools.

He has co-chaired the Religion in Public Schools International Perspectives Group in the American Academy of Religion,

and served on the AAR Task Force on Religion in the schools,

so you may well say he's one of the protagonists of making a case for public religious education at American public schools.

His publications include Explorations in Global Ethics, Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue,

co-edited with Sumner B's Twists, and numerous publications on the role of religion in public schools.

He also contributed to our volume that's on the book table, Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contexts.

Because of his rich expertise on the controversial discussion about the role of religion in public education in the United States,

I have asked him to share his perspectives on this topic with us.

His paper is titled, Religious Studies in Public Education,

Promoting Appreciative and Critical Perspectives on Self, Society and Nature.

Dear Ruth, we are delighted to have you here. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Manfred.

Thank you, Manfred, for that introduction. Thank you all for being here.

A main focus of this conference is on the contributions of religions to the common good.

We are hearing from representatives of diverse religions and denominations

about how their traditions provide resources for realizing liberal democratic values

and for promoting the ability to deal with plurality and to work towards an inclusive society.

I took that language from the conference description.

My focus is related, but slightly different.

Speaking from the perspective of a religious studies professor in an American university,

I will discuss some contributions that the secular academic study of religions in public schools and universities can make to the common good.

Public schools in the United States are legally required to take a secular,

non-devotional, academic approach to teaching about religion.

In this context, secular refers to a constitutionally defined approach that neither privileges

nor rejects any particular religious tradition or expression.

This religious studies approach encourages student awareness of religions, but not acceptance of any particular religion,

learning about religion, but not practicing religion necessarily,

exposing students to a diversity of religious views, but not imposing any particular view,

educating about religions, but not promoting or denigrating religion.

Religious studies is thereby distinguished from a faith-based, religious or theological approach to teaching and learning about religion.

The rationale for including religious studies in public schools is that it contributes to religious, cultural, historical, and civic literacy.

It informs students about the basic beliefs and practices of the world's religions,

about the historical and contemporary roles of religion in shaping literature, art, music, philosophy, law, ethics, politics,

and about the rights and responsibilities of citizens in religiously diverse societies.

I'm in full agreement with this rationale for including religious studies in public education,

and the various projects and initiatives that I've been involved with that were mentioned by Manfred are all pretty much geared toward this agenda for religious studies.

However, in this paper, I want to move beyond the focus on the promotion of basic literacy.

I want to explore how religious studies can, first, foster a critical awareness of students' own taken-for-granted assumptions about themselves,

their societies, and their relation to the natural world, and second, an appreciation of diverse religious and secular worldviews

as resources for students' own ecological and moral imaginations.