January 6, 2015

The emerging academic field of interreligious and interfaith studies (IIS) has burst onto the scene relatively recently and will be, I suspect, coming to a college or university near you soon. Currently there are only a few undergraduate programs and several graduate and seminary programs. The number of these programs are rapidly growing in addition to the number of academic journals and organizations devoted to the field. Those on the forefront of crafting this field have deemed it an inherently interdisciplinary field, which I believe is accurate. However, a particular challenge remains: the clear articulation and demonstration of how this field relates to, and is distinct from, the academic fields of religious studies (RS) and theological studies (TS). READ MORE…