Using interreligious literacy and religious pluralism as frameworks for prevention and wellness across the lifespan

Public health and human service providers can enhance their efforts to promote prevention and wellness across the lifespan by engaging in culturally competent and culturally inclusive practices that address issues of religious identity, affiliation, belief and practice. One means to achieving this goal is to better understand the scholarship and organizations that address interreligious literacy and religious pluralism. Interreligious literacy can be understood as efforts which promote the understanding of philosophical, religious and spiritual beliefs and practices which may be held in common or that may differ among people in the global community. Religious pluralism can be understood as the continuum of co-existence, interaction and cooperation among people of differing philosophical, religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. This session will provide a scholarly framework of theory and an examination of health and human service organizations engaged in the practice of promoting interreligious literacy and/or religious pluralism. This presentation will include theoretical content as well as empirical data drawn from research based on interviews with employees of health and human service organizations which have intentionally chosen to engage in or support interreligious efforts and partnerships involving governmental and faith-based entities.