Center on Religion & the Professions

Improving religious literacy among professionals.

Online "Religious Literacy" course under way

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June 17, 2009 – “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions,” a new online course offered through MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education, is under way. The course (REL ST 3100) teaches students to engage and encounter religion in day-to-day life and in the professional workplace. Its primary goal is to examine religious diversity in private and professional contexts from a practical standpoint by examining a variety of case studies. The course is open to University of Missouri students who are absent from campus for the summer or unable to attend day classes and to nontraditional students.

The course is offered through the University of Missouri’s Department of Religious Studies. The course was created by the department and the Center on Religion & the Professions at University of Missouri. The instructor is Justin Arft. The eight-week class runs June 8-July 31.

Textbooks for the course include “Religion and the Workplace” by Douglas A. Hicks and “How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook” by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida.

After the course is completed and assessed, a team from the Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP) will author a chapter for a monograph about the project that will be distributed nationally through the Institute on Religion in Curriculum and Culture of Higher Education.

The Center on Religion & the Professions was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. For more information about the Center, contact Director Debra L. Mason at (573) 882-9257 or MasonDL@missouri.edu.

Enrollment open for religious literacy class

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May 28, 2009 – There are a few days left to enroll in “Religious Literacy for the Public and Professions,” a new online course offered through MU Direct: Continuing and Distance Education. The course (REL ST 3100) teaches students to engage and encounter religion in day-to-day life and in the professional workplace. Its primary goal is to examine religious diversity in private and professional contexts from a practical standpoint by examining a variety of case studies. The course is open to University of Missouri students who are absent from campus for the summer or unable to attend day classes and to nontraditional students.

Five seats remain available for the course, which is offered through the University of Missouri’s Department of Religious Studies. The course was created by the department and the Center on Religion & the Professions at University of Missouri. The instructor is Justin Arft. Students can register up to June 8 for the eight-week class, which runs June 8-July 31. MU summer registration is June 3-5. A late fee is assessed if registering June 5-8.

Textbooks for the course include “Religion and the Workplace” by Douglas A. Hicks and “How to Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook” by Stuart M. Matlins and Arthur J. Magida.

The Center on Religion & the Professions was founded in 2003 with a mission of improving religious literacy among professionals, to help them serve a diverse public. For more information about the Center, call (573) 882-9257.

CORP Newsletter – May 18, 2009

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News, Research, Calls for Papers and Events from the University of Missouri’s Center on Religion & the Professions (CORP)
May 18, 2009

Greetings! This will be our last edition of the newsletter before it takes a summer hiatus, but read on for current news and upcoming events, plus previews of some events coming up this summer and in early fall 2009. [Read more…]

MU professor's book on work and faith featured

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May 12, 2009 – Dr. Richard “Chip” Callahan‘s recent book, “Work and Faith in the Kentucky Coal Fields: Subject to Dust,” is this week’s Book of the Week in Books & Culture: A Christian Review, a Christianity Today publication. Callahan is an assistant professor in the callahanDepartment of Religious Studies at University of Missouri. With a primary interest in religion in America, Callahan’s research explores the sphere of work and labor, including how occupational cultures, settings and relations of exchange both inform and are informed by religion.

His latest book uses oral histories, folklore, folksongs and vernacular spirituality to tell the history of how early 20th-century coal miners and their families lived their religion in eastern Kentucky’s coal fields. It is published by University of Indiana Press.

Lecture: Kenneth W. Stein on "American Foreign Policy and Arab-Israeli Negotiations: Peace-Seeking, Peace-Making, Peace-Keeping"

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steinmugEmory University professor Dr. Kenneth W. Stein, former Middle East adviser to President Jimmy Carter, speaks on the current situation between Israel and the Arab Palestinians in a lecture, “American Foreign Policy and Arab-Israeli Negotiations: Peace-Seeking, Peace-Making, Peace-Keeping.”

Sponsored by: Local community members, the MU Center on Religion & the Professions, Truman School of Public Affairs, Peace Studies Program and Jewish Student Organization.

April 30, 2009 – 7 p.m.
Neff Auditorium, Neff Hall
University of Missouri

About Dr. Stein:

  • William E. Schatten Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History and Israeli Studies at Emory University
  • Director, Institute for the Study of Modern Israel at Emory University
  • President of the Center for Israel Education at Emory University
  • Former Middle East Fellow of the Carter Center (1983-2006)
  • Instrumental in President Jimmy Carter’s post-presidential engagements in Middle Eastern policy matters

For more information about Dr. Stein, see www.ismi.emory.edu or contact Yossi Feintuch, rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Columbia at (573) 499-4855 or feintuchy@missouri.edu. Professor Stein was Feintuch’s doctoral adviser in U.S. Middle Eastern policy at Emory and guided him toward publishing his dissertation, “U.S. Policy on Jerusalem,” a copy of which is available at the University of Missouri Ellis Library. Feintuch is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at University of Missouri.

UPDATE: Read article in the Columbia Missourian, May 1, 2009