Enemy, Stranger, Neighbour, and Friend: Rough Guide on Religion and Othering

Okpaleke, Ikenna Paschal [UCL] et al.

How do religions represent inside and outside “others” in their ideas, symbols, and practices? How do religious representations of others influence social cohesion? And what role can young leaders play in engaging with the challenges and the potential found within religious traditions’ representations of “others” to cultivate social resilience? This Rough Guide On Religion and Othering offers a practical resource for group study and project visioning that can inspire and equip groups to address core tensions that emerge in religious representations of “otherness”. The guide presents four chapters on how religious ideas, symbols, and practices represent other persons and groups as enemies, strangers, neighbors, and friends. The guide includes anecdotes drawn from real-world situations, short essays on each topic, group reading exercises that draw on the sacred writings of many of the world’s religious traditions, and a gallery of projects developed by young leaders to engage with the challenges of othering by drawing on their religious traditions’ beliefs, symbols, and practices as resources.