'Open House' - 'Portes Ouvertes': Classrooms as Sites of Interfaith Interface

B. Berger and R. Moon, eds., Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority (2016, Hart Publishing, Forthcoming)

17 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2016 Last revised: 9 Feb 2016

See all articles by Shauna Van Praagh

Shauna Van Praagh

McGill University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: 2016

Abstract

This paper reflects on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Loyola High School v Quebec allowing that private Jesuit high school to teach the provincially mandated Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) course from a perspective infused with its own faith-based identity and culture. The metaphor of an ‘open house’ is helpful because it represents a site in which public authority and religion meet. This metaphor illustrates – through an imagined open house that juxtaposes diverse institutional settings – how the encounter of religion and state changes shape across classrooms and through corridors. In other words, the classroom is added to the more classic repertory of courts and constitutions, charters and codes as focal points of legal analysis and learning. A metaphorical ‘portes ouvertes’ event invites us to observe, listen, and insert ourselves into the very places at which traditions meet (interfaith) and the ways in which students and teachers participate (interface).

Keywords: legal pluralism, law and diversity

Suggested Citation

Van Praagh, Shauna, 'Open House' - 'Portes Ouvertes': Classrooms as Sites of Interfaith Interface (2016). B. Berger and R. Moon, eds., Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority (2016, Hart Publishing, Forthcoming) , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2710728

Shauna Van Praagh (Contact Author)

McGill University - Faculty of Law ( email )

3644 Peel Street
Montreal H3A 1W9, Quebec H3A 1W9
Canada

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
44
Abstract Views
407
PlumX Metrics