Clerics Should be Champions of Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy: And Yet … 

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed accelerating global crises that make cross-cultural religious literacy all the more necessary. Religion could and should be playing a part in dealing with these crises, and yet instead of helping face these issues, sadly religion is often contributing to the complex challenges we face. This is not going to be fixed quickly or easily, but rather will require years of civil society building—with creative and consistent involvement of clerics—so that religion can speak to the issues the world faces in a healthy manner.

Keywords:

• clergy
• cleric
• religious leader
• laity
• pastor
• imam
• rabbi

Notes

1 Herein I am using the word “clerics” in a broad sense, inclusive of all faith leaders at the congregational level.

2 Indeed, in America we are seeing increasing mental health problems and burnout among pastors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts, Jr. is Senior Global Pastor at Northwood Church (Keller, TX) and host of the Bold Love podcast. He is the founder of GlocalNet, co-founder of the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network (MFNN), founder and chairman of Glocal Ventures Inc (GVI), and newly appointed president of the Institute of Global Engagement (IGE). He has written 6 books and contributed to numerous media outlets including Fox Business Channel, Washington Post, New York Times, Huckabee Show, Religion News Service, C-Span, Christianity Today, Christian Post, and more.