Chapter 13: Social Justice as a Medium for Interfaith Engagement in College: Lessons Learned From a Case Study

Many college educators and student affairs professionals in higher education aim to prepare students to engage fully and effectively in a diverse society. It is possible that such work has never been as important as it is in today’s divided world. Since the 2016 election, our nation has been characterized by political strife and polarization, much of which is intertwined with—and exacerbated by—fear, misunderstanding, and hostility directed at people of various religions and worldviews.¹ In 2007, the founder of Interfaith Youth Core, Eboo Patel, aptly noted that, in the United States,

Patel (2007) went on to say,

Unfortunately, some of the tensions Patel (2007) warned against have begun to take root in recent years. One way to stem the current tide of religious intolerance involves engaging young adults in meaningful inter-faith² encounters while they are in college so they can develop skills for successfully and civilly navigating worldview differences. However, this strategy requires that higher education leaders find ways to draw students with a host of religious, spiritual, and nonreligious backgrounds into spaces where interfaith interactions can occur. This chapter explores social justice programs at one Catholic university that have been effective in bringing together individuals with diverse worldviews. In particular, it explicates how aspects of the institution’s religious identity have been strategically integrated into these programs to mitigate the marginalization of worldview minority students within their sectarian higher education environment. To appropriately set the stage, I first provide an overview of the religious landscape in the United States (and its associated colleges and universities) and summarize extant research highlighting the capacity of interfaith engagement to help heal communities.