Inter religious study. Order the books and learning materials through this website. Have fun with the puzzle and the stories to read. Examples of interactive learning materials and a few lines from the books. Contact information of the Foundation Trialogue. Overview of the published works and books. Koran, Bible, Tenach. Three traditions, one story. Welcome to the Trialogue Foundation! Information about the Trialogue Foundation. Request a lecture and/or workshop, or ask for more information via a form. Motivation of the author Mrs. Dr. Francien van Overbeeke-Rippen. Back to the indexpage of the Trialogue Foundation.
Interreligious Study
The following article by Dr.Francien van Overbeeke-Rippen about Interreligious Learning was published in a Magazine for Muslim and Christian dialogue, 'Begrip'.
Interreligious Learning in Primary Schools by means of Stories from the Bible and the Koran.

Introduction
In Primary Education, the need for inter religious learning is growing, especially where, in one classroom, children of different faiths are learning together. Usually those are Jews, Christians and Muslims - the Abrahamitic faith groups.
Therefore, the content of this article will be limited to these three groups of believers and their religious backgrounds, norms and values.

Learning
Before religious learning can be discussed, we have to answer the question: What is 'learning'? Learning is a process of growing up, imitating, assimilating, remembering, understanding and reflecting. This is also the case when it comes to religious learning.

Religious learning preceding inter religious learning
Religious learning starts at home. From the beginning of life, the child is being taught; at that age it is called 'education'. Parents as feeders and educators are the child's first human environment. The child depends on the parents. They are the child's orientation; the child follows its parents, first only with his eyes and head, after that he turns his body in their direction to watch them and later he tries to move to them.
At the age of 2-3 years, children start imitating their parents; they also do this with regard to religion. If the parents are praying, the children also try. They imitate the same attitude and try to repeat words; it is 'learning by imitating'. Later, this imitation phase will change into the 'identification phase': the child proves its identity to its parent of the same gender and starts imitating him or her.

Little by little, children begin to ask questions about the 'why and what' of the things. It is important that parents spend a lot of time answering these questions and giving explanations. Patience is necessary, as children repeat these questions again and again, for certainty and better understanding.
The age of 0-4 years is a very important phase in a child's life. In Child Psychology it has been proven that 50% of the total development of a 17 year old happens in the first four years of his or her life! So it's crucial that the parents spend a lot of time with the child in this period and use this time very well, as it's very hard to catch up if the child falls behind.

For religious education these first years of life are also important. Because young children love pictures with tales and rhymes, these have also been developed for religious education. In this way, parents can verbally transfer much knowledge and information. The Israelites were even instructed by God to pass on stories about God and his people to future generations (Deuteronomy 6:5-9). Rites and symbols are also parts of this.

If young children have some understanding of what parents tell them about religious life, they will recognize it later when they are taken by (one of) the parents to their house of prayer - be that a synagogue, church or mosque. They may experience the same devotion and this may result in active participation at a later stage.

Inter religious Learning
Parents' religious education will partly be taken over by others, when children reach school age and are taught 'religion education'. New information will be added to what they have already learnt and integrated into the thoughts of the pupils.
At the same time, pupils become conscious of classmates with other faiths, rites and symbols. The earlier the teaching staff pay attention to this, e.g. in class talks, the more naturally children will accept these religious differences.

As children move up through the school system, they receive more inter religious lessons. As we saw, inter religious learning presupposes religious learning, especially at primary school. If basic knowledge about one's own religion is not available, it will become very difficult for the teacher to teach two new religions together; and for the pupils it will be very difficult to distinguish and store this information without confusion.
Children will be taught how to compare information about the other religion with the information about their own religion. Sometimes they will see similarities; sometimes they will experience differences, also regarding rituals and symbols. Nevertheless, they may be anxious to get to know the different faith of classmates. If these classmates are also familiar with their own faith, the teacher can link them up and start an inter religiously-orientated learning process.
The next question we will examine is how to do this.

Starting point
It is known that looking for similarities is a good starting point; it gives a better atmosphere. Looking together for what is the same in both religions may lead to answers such as: 'God' or 'Allah', or 'praying' or 'care for another'. The teacher can ask how the pupils know that and perhaps a source will be mentioned: the Bible (Christian) or the Koran (Muslim). What is written in it? It can be arranged that the teacher looks for something that both books have in common.
Writing the book 'Ibraheem and Abraham - Koran and Bible Told to Children' I have combined such common stories and put them in chronological order: Creaturion, The first man and woman, The first sons, Noah/Nooh, etc. In this way, forty stories were written, recognizable from Tenah/Old Testament, New Testament and Koran. It can be called one long story in forty parts, with references to where in the Bible and the Koran the stories can be found. The sentences are short, which is good for children as well as for people from abroad who are learning your language.
The last 30 pages of 'Ibraheem and Abraham' contain teaching methods from the Christian Pedagogic Study Centre (CPS) for this inter religious learning, as well as questions about two stories and results of try-outs in some Christian and Islamic primary schools. One of the stories was the story of Noah (that's 'Nooh' in the Koran). Muslim children were surprised to hear the Arabic name and they immediately remembered the story, told it to their classmates and to the teacher and at once the dialogue began!

So, knowledge can lead to recognition and on the basis of this recognition, the teacher can put both stories together: do they tell the same story? Does each story also tell something unique - and what is that? How is it possible that these stories have so much in common? In such class dialogues, children can exchange ideas.

Recognizing in the other story something of your own story can lead to acknowledging the other. It is the task of the teacher to guide this process in a positive way, not first point out the differences. That's something to be done later, when trust is growing between the children. Then the teacher can, step by step, ask questions about the reasons for certain differences.
And finally: there will always be differences. Hopefully these children will have long lives during which they can gain more insight.

Teachers and pupils/students can work together with this learning material. CPS has added questions about the two tested stories and also some experience questions: Do you recognize something of the story in your own life? Children may also talk about their cultural backgrounds.
CPS gives five pedagogic-didactic hints:
1. Good preparation is the half of the work.
2. Learn from one another, teachers as well as children.
3. Ask lots of questions to deepen the subject.
4. Enter the children's universe.
5. Pay attention to autobiographic aspects when children are sharing the same experiences.

Sometimes a little puzzle is useful to test newly acquired knowledge. To make it complete I have also devised questions for the other 38 stories: A-questions about the information and B-questions about the intention of the story. This material is available separately. Cost: Euro 4,00.

Religious Education at Public Schools
This section concerns inter religious learning at Christian primary schools - Roman Catholic and Protestant. However, at public schools pupils can also get religious education in their own religion, if their parents ask for it. Nevertheless, in practice it will be the teacher himself who has pupils of different faiths in his lessons. Then he has the important but difficult task of looking for something positive that they have in common. Maybe 'Ibraheem and Abraham' can still be of help.

Teacher Training
Because of the Bible and Koran references in the booklet, it is also being welcomed as study material in some teacher training schools, including Islamic students.

Secondary Schools
This 'Ibraheem and Abraham' book is suitable for children aged 10 and above. It is difficult to give a precise upper limit.
Certainly, it is very useful in the first year of secondary school. For higher classes an extension can be given to several stories. There are other stories not suitable for children aged 10-12.
In the meantime, 25 questions from Christians and Muslims to one another about each holy book, about rites and symbols in each religion were collected and put together with my answers taken from verses in Bible and Koran in a new book, titled 'Back and Forth' (in Dutch: Over en Weer), which will was published in November 2002. It will serve the dialogue and trialogue in secondary education and in the community, because ages change, but holy sources remain the same.

Francien van Overbeeke-Rippen