Interfaith Leadership: A Primer

by Eboo Patel

Overview

A guide for students, groups, and organizations seeking to foster interfaith dialogue and promote understanding across religious lines

In this book, renowned interfaith leader Eboo Patel offers a clear, detailed, and practical guide to interfaith leadership, illustrated with compelling examples. Patel explains what interfaith leadership is and explores the core competencies and skills of interfaith leadership, before turning to the issues interfaith leaders face and how they can prepare to solve them. Interfaith leaders seek points of connection and commonality—in their neighborhoods, schools, college campuses, companies, organizations, hospitals, and other spaces where people of different faiths interact with one another. While it can be challenging to navigate the differences and disagreements that can arise from these interactions, skilled interfaith leaders are vital if we are to have a strong, religiously diverse democracy. This primer presents readers with the philosophical underpinnings of interfaith theory and outlines the skills necessary to practice interfaith leadership today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807033630
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	330,063
File size:	398 KB

About the Author

Named “one of America’s best leaders” by U.S. News and World Report, Eboo Patel is Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books. He is an Ashoka Fellow and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and their two sons.

Table of Contents

Introduction

IDENTITY
1 The Identity of an Interfaith Leader

THEORY
2 The “Inter” in Interfaith
3 The “Faith” in Interfaith

VISION
4 The Vision of Interfaith Leadership

KNOWLEDGE BASE
5 The Knowledge Base of Interfaith Leadership

SKILL SET
6 The Skill Set of Interfaith Leadership

QUALITIES
7 The Qualities of Interfaith Leadership

Conclusion

Appendix: Summary of Frameworks

Acknowledgments

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Editorial Reviews

06/20/2016
Patel (Acts of Faith), head of the cooperative student group Interfaith Youth Core, makes a compelling argument for interfaith activism and leadership, and provides a plethora of diverse examples of what interfaith leadership might look like and how to go about it. In clear, straightforward prose, Patel guides the reader through helpful thought experiments—for example, a Muslim family moving into a predominantly Methodist town—and shows how social theory can become practical. He also outlines the necessary knowledge, skill set, and qualities for interfaith leadership, allowing readers to approach this as a handbook or reference manual that can be consulted depending on the various needs and situations. Patel's writing is accessible and engaging; this book will likely find its audience among religious leaders (of all ages) for ministry purposes, and will be an excellent addition to any undergraduate or graduate syllabus in religious studies. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

This book makes it clear why Eboo Patel is one of the most inspiring and successful interfaith leaders on the national, and even international, scene.”
—Paul F. Knitter, author of Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian

“Make no mistake: far from being the easy assertion of well-intentioned liberalism, civic interfaith leadership is a subtle and demanding skill that requires patience, political savvy, historical knowledge, and careful reflection, as well as inspiration and goodwill. Accessible, inspiring, and rigorous, Interfaith Leadership will almost certainly become required reading in almost any class or workshop that engages religious diversity in our society today. Most of all, Patel has a keen eye for the stories that Americans have lived in trying to create and nurture that precious public space, where deeply held religious differences are neither ignored, nor dissolved, but woven into a common good.”
—Laurie L. Patton, Professor of Religion, and President, Middlebury

“At a time when Americans are fiercely debating differences over race, class and gender, Eboo Patel makes a compelling argument that to achieve healing, we must reconcile religious differences as well. Drawing upon practical stories as well as scholarly writings, he shows how we can move beyond diversity to an enriching pluralism. This is an important, insightful book by a man who has become a model of interfaith leadership.”
—David Gergen, Professor of Public Service and Co-Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School

From the Publisher