TITLE:
Teaching Religious Pluralism and Study of Religious Cultural Heritage in Bulgarian Universities
AUTHORS:
Georgeta Nazarska, Svetla Shapkalova
KEYWORDS:
Academic Religious Education; Religious Pluralism; Cultural Heritage; State University of Library Studies and IT; Bulgaria
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.2 No.4,
March
18,
2014
ABSTRACT: The article aims to present good practices in academic religious education in Bulgaria. The paper provides an overview of religious education in Bulgarian universities, stating that it is currently mono-confessional both in private and in public universities. Non-confessional religious education is carried out only in the State University of Library Studies and IT (SULSIT) in Sofia. The introduced innovative training courses, teaching methods in the field of religious education, and new published teaching materials are commented. The paper gives examples of individual and group work of students. The last part of the article presents the results of two surveys with cluster of undergraduate and graduate students and data coming from qualitative research. The main conclusion is that learning outcomes from non-confessional religious education at the SULSIT are prerequisites for achieving the objectives of religious pluralism, for better training in cultural heritage, and to form an understanding to religious diversity.