Abstract:
Since the mid-1990s, interreligious education has become an integral component of the
religious education debate. Regardless of the affective level that interreligious education seeks
to provide, the desired changes in attitude and prejudice require one to take into account a
diversity of research on attitude and prejudice. Accordingly, the goal of the present article is to
encourage the adoption of psychological theories of prejudice with a view to the prospects
they offer to interreligious education. However, because the field of psychological prejudice
research is complex, we will only be discussing those theories that, firstly, reflect the present
state of prejudice psychology and, secondly, are of particular relevance to interreligious
education; these are cognitive theories (accentuation theory, illusory correlation theory,
attribution theory), the social identity theory, and social learning theory. Emanating from this
review, the article will go on to reflect different strategies of attitude change for interreligious
learning.
Description:
Prof. Dr Martin Rothgangel is
participating in the research
project ‘Gender Studies and
Practical Theology Theory
Formation’, directed by Prof.
Dr Yolanda Dreyer,
Department of Practical
Theology, Faculty of
Theology, University of
Pretoria.
