Scholars to Talk Religion: Detroit's Diversity Draws Conferences

June 11, 2007

Author: David Crumm

Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070611/NEWS05/706110341/1007/NEWS

Detroit's status as a global center for autos and pro sports may be plateauing this year, but the region's reputation as a center for exploring religious diversity continues to rise.

"Detroit is one of several cities, like New York and Los Angeles, that are natural places to explore America's growing religious diversity," Lucinda Mosher, a New York-based educator in world religions, said last week. She is flying to Michigan for a June 18-23 conference in Dearborn cosponsored by the Episcopal Church and the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Metro Detroit is becoming such a hub for religious studies that a second national conference, gathering more than 100 scholars from universities across the country, will take place June 21-23 at Rochester College in Rochester Hills.

"We've got scholars coming from a lot of top schools -- Harvard, Boston University, Notre Dame, MIT and many others," David Fleer, professor of religion at Rochester College, said last week. Fleer is coordinator of the conference, called "The Emerging Shape of Global Christianity."

See also: Interfaith, Civic, Campus