FFRFMCC Lecture Series: World Religions

In October, 2017, the FFRFMCC hosted a two-week lecture series by Mr. John Camardella, a Chicago-area high school teacher who teaches classes on the various religions of the world to Senior-level students as part of a public high school curriculum.

John Camardella is in his 15th year of teaching at Prospect High School.  For the past eight years, he has taught two stand-alone World Religion elective courses, and has worked to advance the curriculum at the national level.  Currently, he is an Education Fellow working to pilot curriculum alongside Dr. Diane Moore at the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School .   Last year, John was one of two high school teachers in the country who helped develop a framework for how to teach about religion in public schools.  John also teaches religion courses to adults and a graduate level course for teachers and administrators, making him a most qualified person to ensure that any public school education regarding world religions is comparative and informative, and not designed to promote any one specific religion.

In his spare time, he travels to improve his curriculum and understanding, having studied religion in Turkey, Cambodia, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, China, Greece, Thailand, Austria, Israel and the West Bank, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, and Costa Rica.

During our initial lectures, John educated the audiences on the history of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, as well as non-Abrahamic religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. Following each lecture, an extensive Q&A provided greater insight to these religious traditions.

The FFRFMCC is pleased to announce our second series of lectures from Mr. Camardella.  Here is a summary of the upcoming lecture topics:

May 22nd — The spread of Christianity beginning with the Apostle Paul and continuing through the founding of America. Special emphasis will be placed on the early church in the Mediterranean region, the role of Constantine, and the early settlers in the New World.   John will also discuss how Christianity divided into several denominations.

May 29th — How the different faith traditions are handling the issue of Climate Change in diverse ways. Case Studies published at Harvard Divinity School will be provided as John explores Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu perspectives on the topic.

As with the first lecture series, each evening will conclude with an extensive Q&A session.

We hope you will mark your calendars for each of these fascinating and highly educational lectures.