A curriculum for grades 6-8
By Dan Harper, v. 1.0.1
Copyright (c) 2019-2021 Dan Harper
Go to Part Two of this curriculum with session plans for alternate years
The Neighboring Religious Communities curriculum was taught online beginning in March, 2020. Lesson plans labeled v. 1.0.1 (1st visit and 2nd visit) include lesson plans for both online classes (where you do online visits), and in-person classes (where you may do in-person or online visits).
This curriculum was written for use in Silicon Valley, but it can be adapted for use elsewhere. Version 2.0, currently in development, will be independent of place. Version 2.0 will also be less Eurocentric, and will incorporate more recent scholarship from religious studies on the relationship between religion and colonialism. Version 2.0 is due to be released in late 2026.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Logistics planner and sample schedule of classes
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
A. Overview of the process
B: Goals of “Neighboring Religious Communities”
C. Philosophy and rationale behind the course
1ST VISIT: Another UU congregation
Session 1: Intro to the course
Session 2: What makes a UU? Visiting another UU congregation
Session 3: Visiting First Unitarian in San Jose (alternate years: Redwood City UU Fellowship)
Session 4: Talking about the field trip
2ND VISIT: A progressive religious community
Session 5: Representing UUism in other religious communities
Session 6: What makes a religious progressive?
Session 7: Visiting a United Church of Christ church
Session 8: Talking about the field trip
3RD AND 4TH VISITS: Christian diversity
Session 9: Games and a video
Session 10: Christian diversity
Session 11: Visiting an AME Zion Church
Session 12: Talking about the visit
Session 13: Christian Christmas
Session 14: Visiting a Roman Catholic church
Session 15: Talking about the field trip
Session 16: Comparing the first four visits
5TH VISIT: New forms of Christianity
Session 17: Mormon family and community
Session 18: Visiting the Mormon church
Session 19: Talking about the field trip
Session 20: Games and a video
6TH VISIT: Non-Western religions
Session 21: Non-Western religions
Session 22: Visiting the Hindu temple
Session 23: Talking about the field trip
Session 24: Closing
Neighboring Religions Resources
Arts resources
Documenting your visits
Finding faith communities
List of faith communities in south Palo Alto
Process guide
Above: Anjuman-e-Jamali mosque, Islamic, Shia, Dahwoodi Bohra community, Palo Alto, California
LOGISTICS PLANNER AND SCHEDULE
1. Logistics and advance planning for First Unitarian Church in San Jose, Sept. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
2. Logistics and advance planning for First Congregational Church, Palo Alto, Oct. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
3. Logistics and advance planning for University AME Zion Church, Nov. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
4. Logistics and advance planning for St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Dec. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
4a. Logistics and advance planning for MVPJ class visitor, Jan. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
5. Logistics and advance planning for the Mormon church, Feb. ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
6. Logistics and advance planning for the Hindu temple, March ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
Last class: Logistics and advance planning for the final class session, March ___
Which teacher is in charge of this visit:
SAMPLE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES
This is a sample of a schedule that would be distributed to parents at the beginning of the year. A full-year schedule helps parents plan, and ensures better attendance. This sample is the actual schedule used at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto during the 2018-2019 school year.
First visit: Another UU congregation
Session 1, 8/26/19 — Intro to the course (8/26/18)
Session 2, 9/9/18 — What makes a UU
Session 3, 9/16/18 — Visiting First Unitarian San Jose
Session 4, 9/23/18 — Talking about the field trip
Second visit: A progressive faith community
Session 5, 9/30/18 — Representing UUism in other faith communities
Session 6, 10/7/18 — What makes a religious progressive?
Session 7, 10/14/18 — Visiting First Congregational Church, Palo Alto
Session 8, 10/21/18 — Talking about the field trip
Third and fourth visits: Christian Diversity
Session 9, 10/28/18 — Games and group building
Session 10, 11/4/18 — Christian diversity
Session 11, 11/11/18 — Visiting University AME Zion Church
Session 12, 11/18/18 — Talking about the field trip, and prep for 4th visit
Session 13, 12/2/18 — Christian Christmas (actually, Advent)
Session 14, 12/16/18 — Visiting St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic church
Session 15, 1/5/19 — Talking about the field trip
Session 16, 1/13/19 — Comparing the first 4 visits
Fifth visit: New forms of Christianity
Session 17, 1/20/19 — Mormonism
Session 18, 2/3/19 — Visiting the Mormon church
Session 19, 2/10/19 — Talking about the field trip
Session 20, 2/17/19 — Games and group building
Sixth visit: Non-Western religions
Session 21, 2/24/19 — Non-Western religions
Session 22, 3/3/19 — Visiting the Hindu temple
Session 23, 3/10/19 — Talking about the field trip
Session 24, 3/17/19 — Closing
(April and early May: spring project)
Acknowledgements
This curriculum is based in large part on the accumulated wisdom of Sunday school teachers at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 2012-2017. Principal teachers involved in teaching the Neighboring Faith Communities class who provided valuable input to this curriculum include James Sperry and Dan Harper, with Laura Coleman, Harrison “Buzz” Frahn, and Craig Lewis.
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
“Neighboring Faith Communities” offers a complete guide to the process of running a Sunday school class for middle schoolers in which you visit other faith communities.
This introductory matter, titled “Introduction and Overview,” gives an overview of the course process, goals for the course, and a rationale and a philosophy for visiting other faith communities. From there, you can go to 24 fully-scripted lesson plans (this is version 0.9; version 1/0 will have lesson plans for a second year).
You can also use the old process guide, which has no lesson plans.
A. Overview of the process
“Neighboring Faith Communities” is a program that is based on making visits to other faith communities near your congregation. Each visit involves a three-session (three week) process:
(1) In the session before the visit, the class learns the basics about the faith community: what they should wear, what to expect when they arrive, basic etiquette, etc. A key resource for this step is the book How To Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook, by Arthur J. Magida (Skylight Paths Publications, revised regularly).
(2) In the next session, the following week, the class visits the faith community.
(3) In the third session, the class talks about the visit: —What happened during the visit, and what did you especially notice? —What was the same and different about other faith communities we’ve visited (including our own faith community)?
The Neighboring Faith Communities class also includes an initial session or two where the class decides which faith communities they would like to visit; periodic sessions devoted to group-building and fun; visiting speakers (e.g., from traditions where a visit is inappropriate or impossible); and occasional sessions on other topics relating to faith communities (e.g., feminism in religion).
B. Goals of “Neighboring Faith Communities”
1. To increase religious literacy, by introducing young people to the actual rituals and practices of different worshiping communities.
2. To teach religious tolerance, by visiting faith communities with values that differ from our own, and maintaining a respectful demeanor during those visits.
3. To make good world citizens, by raising the awareness of the religious diversity of the U.S. (and the world) in young people.
4. To have fun and sometimes challenging new experiences; to build a peer group that is supportive; and to expose middle schoolers to thoughtful and caring adult role models in their own faith community.
In the Neighboring Faith Communities class, young people become better citizens by learning about other faith communities, through field trips to those faith communities.
In the Neighboring Faith Communities class, we do not focus on beliefs or proper practice (the doctrinal and legal/ethical dimensions of religion). Probably the best place for young people to learn about these dimensions of religion is at school (in history and social studies classes), or through books or online learning. Instead, we focus on three other important dimensions of religion:
— the emotional dimension of religion
— the material dimension of religion
— the social dimension of religion
The best way to learn about these dimensions of religion are through experience, and that’s what we do in this course — we have young people experience the worship services of other faith communities.
C. Philosophy and rationale behind the course
This course has a dual educational philosophy. On the one hand, it is grounded in essentialism, where we think that young people need to be exposed to some basic, essential knowledge about religion. More specifically, in this course we aim to introduce young people to a variety of religions through their practices and their communities, as we feel this knowledge is just as important as knowledge about beliefs and theologies or religious philosophies.
At the same time, this course is grounded in existentialism, particularly existentialism as espoused by Maxine Greene in her essay “Diversity and Inclusion: Towards a Curriculum for Human Beings.” Greene asserts that for each of us, our “selves are always in the making,” and she rejects any “single visions or interpretations”; thus this course doesn’t impose a single interpretation on religion, e.g, we would never say that our religion is a more highly developed religion than others (though we may say that it is better for us). And Maxine Greene argues for aesthetic experiences and use of imagination in curriculum, to the end that curriculum might engage with alternative worldviews that allow unjust societal restrictions to be “brought within reach so that persons of all sorts can come together to change them.”
Our dual educational philosophy means that (1) we will expose young people to the diversity of faith communities that currently exist in this part of the world, such that (2) the young people witness (and perhaps even experience, to some degree) various searches for meaning, various worldviews. This dual educational philosophy means that we emphasize both knowledge (in this case, knowledge of religious etiquette and cultural literacy), and aesthetic experiences that engage all the senses.
This course also takes a somewhat unusual approach to teaching about other religions. Ninian Smart, in his book Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World’s Beliefs, identifies seven dimensions of the sacred:
1. the ritual dimension
2. the doctrinal or philosophical dimension
3. the mythic or narrative dimension
4. the experiential or emotional dimension
5. the ethical or legal dimensions
6. the organizational or social component
7. the material or artistic dimension
Western culture has been dominated by the Protestant tradition, which was itself dominated by doctrinal concerns; thus in Western education we often focus on teaching doctrine and philosophy while slighting other religious dimensions. Protestantism in the United States, with its multiplicity of denominations, also tends to pay great attention to the history of schisms and the development of new organizational or social structures; and so in U.S. education we often focus a great deal on history, polity, and denominations.
But in this course, we turn the focus away from doctrine and philosophy, and we spend little time on history or denominational organization. Nor do we take up the narrative or mythic dimension, since that is a focus in our religious education programs for younger children. Instead, we turn our attention to the experiential or emotional dimension: what does it feel like to be part a worship service in another faith community? And we turn our attention to the social component (exclusive of the organizational component): how should we behave so that we fit in as well as possible to another faith community’s social structure? — this is of course the question of etiquette, and it is not by accident that this course is titled “Neighboring Faith Communities“. Finally, in this course we directly experience the material or artistic dimension: when we visit another faith community, what beauty do we experience, what art and architecture, what music, what smells, what tastes, what movement or comfort or discomfort?
As it happens, these foci of attention prove to be particularly suitable to early adolescents. The social component of religion is perfect for them, because early adolescents are highly social beings who are doing lots of learning about how to relate to peers and those older and younger than themselves. The emotional component of religion is perfect for them, because early adolescents are just beginning to experience a whole new range of complicated emotions, and early adolescence is a time to learn how to make sense out of the emotions. Finally, the material or artistic dimension of religion works well for them, because early adolescents are at a stage in life where they are newly alive to the power of all the arts. (It should be noted that while the course does expose young people to the ritual dimension of religion, “worship … is supposed to be sincere” according to Ninian Smart. We can’t expect someone who visits another faith community just once to experience the sincerity that comes from regular participation in the community’s ritual.)
A further rationale for this course is that we have found the existing printed curriculum guides tend to focus too much on the cognitive aspects of religion, rather than on the power of religions as aesthetic experiences and as living ways to make meaning in the world. For example, the Building Bridges curriculum, published online by the UUA as part of their “Tapestry of Faith” series, takes more of a facts-based approach, rather than an experiential approach; it places a strong emphasis on doctrine, philosophy, and history, with less emphasis on experience, emotion, and the arts. The still-older print-version curriculum Neighboring Faiths curriculum is even more problematic, because not only does it emphasize facts to a greater degree than we are looking for, but it is factually inaccurate in places, and it does not adequately cover the non-Western religions which are now a part of the U.S. cultural landscape.
So it is we found ourselves developing our own approach to experiencing other faiths, an experiential and existential curriculum based on the most recent scholarship in religious studies.
Above: Palo Alto Friends Meeting, Friends General Conference, Palo Alto, California
D. Social justice component
In this course, young people get introduced to two important points having to do with social justice, one explicit and one implicit.
First, at several points in the curriculum, we talk explicitly about how other faith communities might become social justice partners for our faith community. Other faith communities may not share all our social justice commitments. Yet we can find some common ground with almost any faith community, and in fact our congregation is already involved in interfaith partnerships aimed at amplifying the effects of social justice work done by individual faith communities. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto is currently working with other congregations in Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice for immigration reform, peace, tolerance of our Muslim neighbors, and other issues. We are one of the twelve faith communities that participates in Hotel de Zink, an emergency homeless shelter that locates in each faith community one month a year. We are also part of Peninsula Interfaith Action, a larger interfaith group that works on immigration, affordable housing, and other issues.
This course also makes the implicit point that religious literacy is an important skill for people living in a free democratic society. An open democratic society in which there is no state-established religion must by definition be open to a wide diversity of religious groups. This democratic openness is strengthened by in-person knowledge of other religions: if you know something about the local Jewish synagogue or Muslim masjid, or about the incredible diversity of Christian groups, you are better prepared to deal with issues like conflicts over zoning for unfamiliar faith communities building buildings in your community; you are better prepared to show solidarity with faith communities that become the targets of extremists, such as Muslims who are targeted by hate groups; and so on. That’s the point made by the following hour-long documentary on the religious diversity of Fremont, Calif., by Harvard University’s Pluralism Project; this documentary is highly recommended to all teachers of this course:
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following are some of the books that have been consulted during the preparation of this curriculum:
Historical curricula
Isaacs, Mary K. Building Bridges: A World Religions Program. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2014. Accessed online in 2015, http://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/bridges
Manwell, Reginald D., and Sophia Lyon Fahs. The Church across the Street. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958, 1947.
Reed, Christine F., and Patricia Hoertdoerfer. Neighboring Faiths. Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 1997.
Vail, Albert R. Heroic Lives. Boston: Beacon Press, 1917. Chapters on Zoroaster, Muhammad, Buddha, the Bab.
Published sources
Chaves, Mark. American Religion: Contemporary Trends. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Coles, Robert. Doing Documentary Work. New York and Oxford: New York Public Library and Oxford University Press, 1986.
Eck, Diana. A New Religious America: How a ‘Christian Country’ Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Engelke, Matthew. “Material Religion,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Studies. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Greene, Maxine. “Diversity and inclusion: Towards a curriculum for human beings.” Teachers College Record, vol. 95, pp. 211-221, 1993.
Matlins, Stuart M., and Arthur J. Magida, eds. How To Be a Perfect Stranger: The Essential Religious Etiquette Handbook. Skylight Paths Publishing, 2010, 2015.
Partridge, Christopher, ed. New Religions: A Guide: New Religious Movements, Sects, and Alternative Spiritualities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
————— , ed. Introduction to World Religions. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.
Prothero, Stephen. God Is Not One. New York: Harper One, 2011.
————— . Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t. New York: Harper One, 2007.
Smart, Ninian. Dimensions of the Sacred: An Anatomy of the World’s Beliefs. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1996.
Works about individual religious traditions
A wide range of contemporary scholarship on individual religious traditions was consulted during the development and implementation of this curriculum. These books are not listed here because the curriculum as written has little information about individual traditions.