Against teaching propositional belief in higher education and the World Religions Paradigm

Abstract This article outlines some problems inherent in the World Religions Paradigm and focuses on the problem of teaching propositional belief. By comparing belief to faith, this article suggests that teaching World Religions in higher education can be done without propositional belief and through a practice-oriented alternative. Using one line of thought in the philosophy of education, this article argues that teachers can adjust the World Religions Paradigm, rather than getting rid of it all together. This adjustment is based on Wrathall’s neo-Heideggerian argument that praxis-oriented faith and lived religious experience should be fundamental to World Religions in higher education.