Understanding World Religions Conclusion Wither Religious Studies? © 2011 Irving Hexham Source: Hindu torments of hell. Williams Jackson, A. V., ed., History of India, Volume VIII by Sir Alfred Comyn Lyle, London, The Grolier Society, 1907. In the public domain. © 2011 Irving Hexham

Wither Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham Ninian Smart and colleagues discussing the future of study of religion at a meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Washington. What do you think they were saying?

Wither Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham 2008. © 2011 Irving Hexham Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial is a grim reminder that ideas have consequences and students of religion have a responsibility to society.

Wither Religious Studies? Source: Ritual murder. Gardiner, James, Faiths of the World, Edinburgh, A. Fullarton & Co., 1858. In the public domain. © 2011 Irving Hexham Today Christians, and Christianity, are often blamed for intolerance and promoting things like anti-Semitism. These nineteenth century prints remind us that other religions have their problems too and like Christianity share a belief in things like hell that are conveniently ignored by many scholars.

Wither Religious Studies? Photos by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham The other side of the coin is this small plaque on the Oranienbergstraße Synagogue in Berlin. It reminds visitors a German policemen had the moral courage to prevent the synagogue’s destruction by a Nazi mob in 1938.

Wither Religious Studies? Photos of Alan Paton and Desmond Tutu by Irving Hexham. That of Gandhi used with the permission of Ms. Sandhya Metha of the Gandhi Archive. © 2011 Irving Hexham These three South African photos of Alan Paton, Gandhi, and Desmond Tutu remind us that people of conviction can work together across religious and ethnic barriers for justice and peace.

Wither Religious Studies? Photo of Wi-Wham Conference by Irving Hexham 1987. © 2011 Irving Hexham Black and White South Africans reconcile at a meeting organized by the evangelical group YWAM during the last days of the old order of the apartheid regime in 1987.

Wither Religious Studies? Photos of American Academy of Religion meeting in Toronto 2002, by Irving Hexham. © 2011 Irving Hexham French scholar, and guru of postmodernism, Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) addresses the American Academy of Religion in Toronto in 2002. What place has deconstruction in Religious Studies today?

Wither Religious Studies? Educated by the former East German communist system historian Ulrich van der Heyden, of the Humboldt University, Berlin, has helped revitalize the study of Christian missions by secular historians? Has the study of missions and missionaries a place in Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham 2008. © 2011 Irving Hexham

Wither Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham 2003. © 2011 Irving Hexham Anthropologist Karla Poewe turned from fieldwork in Africa to work in German archives to understand the way National Socialism promoted a deep anti-Semitism. How useful do you think it is for scholars of religion to be trained in more than one academic discipline?

Wither Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham date unknown. © 2011 Irving Hexham University of Waterloo professor Douglas Cowan pioneered the use of the Internet to study religious groups. What are the strengths and weaknesses of studying religion online?

Wither Religious Studies? Photo by Irving Hexham of Lancaster University 1970. © 2011 Irving Hexham This photo of white doves overlooking the multi-faith centre of Lancaster University is an appropriate place to end a study of world religions and leaves us with the question whether the dream of peace is a mirage or reality.