Religions – Open Access Journal of Theology: Jewish Religious Teaching & Learning
We invite you to submit an article for a special issue on Jewish Religious Teaching & Learning to be published by Religions – Open Access Journal of Theology.
A critical and constructive exploration of Jewish religious teaching and learning is particularly vital in the wake of broad cultural phenomena such as secularism, post-modernity, gender awareness, new forms of fundamentalism, the digital revolution and globalization, and quests for Jewish spirituality. The aim of this volume is to bring together groundbreaking articles about any aspect pertaining to Jewish religious teaching and learning by both scholars in the field of Jewish Studies and scholars and practitioners engaged in Jewish religious education, while the term ‘religious’ will be specified. It will feature scholarship across research disciplines of Judaism, with the goal of identifying ideas in the past as well as in the present, that might fertilize the furthering of Jewish religious teaching and learning in a wide variety of contemporary settings. The following represents a sampling of possible topics:
• “Religious” is an equivocal term: In what ways might the term “religious” (re)define the purposes of Jewish religious teaching and learning nowadays? What makes Jewish teaching and/or learning distinctively “religious”? “Religious” versus “spiritual”: what’s the difference and what are its implications, if any?
• What is the contemporary task of Jewish religious teaching and learning?
• Revising the curriculum: What ancient and/or new (Jewish as well as non-Jewish) subjects are essential nowadays for Jewish religious teaching and learning?
• What should a teacher of Jewish religious learning know, be able to do, and ideally become as a person?
• What might Jewish religious teaching and learning have in particular to contribute to today’s broader culture?
• What distinctive educational opportunities and/or challenges do Jewish religious teaching and learning encounter, given the impact of the digital revolution as well as of the consumerist, neo-liberal economic culture, on people’s habits of mind, heart, and hands?
Topics might refer to specific learning contexts, particular subject matter, or distinctive student bodies. Authors are encouraged to address their topics by engaging hermeneutically with ideas and texts of different historical periods and from different Jewish religious orientations, or to submit empirical research. They also should offer a critical reflection on their research topics’ contributions toward furthering Jewish religious teaching and learning.