In 2014, Dr. Gill participated in a Teaching Interfaith Understanding faculty development seminar, run in partnership between the Council of Independent Colleges and Interfaith Interfaith America, and generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. For information on future seminars, and to access more resources created by seminar alumni, visit The Council of Independent Colleges.

About This Assignment

The following assignment was developed by Dr. Rahuldeep Singh Gill as a part of his “Introduction to Christianity” course at California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, CA). Themes of interfaith engagement, Christian theologies of interfaith cooperation, and exploring and analyzing case studies of religious diversity are a central component to how Dr. Gill teaches this course, which is required for all students at California Lutheran.

As a part of the course, Dr. Gill has students read Eboo Patel’s memoir, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation (Beacon Press, 2007). This spiritual autobiography assignment serves as an accompaniment to that text, encouraging students to trace their own religious or non-religious stories as a part of a larger conversation in the course about religious diversity and identity.