On Common Ground World Religions in America

Author(s): Diana L Eck
Publisher: Columbia University Press New York

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PREFACE
This multimedia CD-ROM contains more than three thousand pages of text, two thousand photographs and images, one hundred sound files and movies, and one hundred primary documents, all of which can be used for teaching and learning, for individual and in-class study, and for research and fieldwork. This booklet is a guide to the wealth of information in the CDROM, to help you decide how best to use it in your educational setting. Because this CD-ROM is multimedia, it is also multilevel; it can be explored and used in different but equally educational ways by high school students, college students, graduate students, professors, journalists, clergy, public officials, and health care workers. ON COMMON GROUND can be used in high school social studies and American history courses and in college religion, American studies, and ethnic studies courses.
The best education is inquiry punctuated by questions, guided by resources, and driven by curiosity, ON COMMON GROUND began as an educational project—the Pluralism Project-in which Harvard students, from freshmen to graduate students, examined the growing religious diversity of America. Between 1991 and 1994, the Pluralism Project supported the "hometown" summer research and travel of more than fifty students, each motivated by his or her own interpretation of the following three questions:
1. How is the religious landscape of American cities and towns changing with the
presence of new mosques, temples, gurdwaras, and interfaith councils? 2. How are these religious traditions changing and adapting as they take root in America
and begin to develop religious and educational institutions, religious networks,
summer camps, and national organizations? 3. How is America changing with this broader, more complex religious pluralism?
This CD-ROM is only a beginning in the exploration of these questions, with much that remains to be done-in every city and town, religious community, and school and college. ON COMMON GROUND is thus not a completed project but an invitation to look again at the religious multiplicity and diversity of your own community, state, and region of the United States.