Religion and water
University: Barcelona
Abstract
Pedagogical intention: to deepen understanding of the religious meaning of water through knowledge of traditions, direct contact with believers from various religions, and artistic expression as a way of understanding and inner transformation.
The activity moves from conceptual analysis to experiential expression, and from the familiar to the discovery of the other.
The logic of the activity is recalled as: from knowing to understanding, from understanding to living.
General Information
From the familiar to the diverse
The activity focuses on deepening understanding of the religious meaning of water through knowledge of traditions, direct contact with believers from various religions, and artistic expression as a way of understanding and inner transformation.
Teaching unit details / General information about the course
| Title | RELIGION AND WATER. From the familiar to the diverse |
| Course focus | Water, peace and interreligious dialogue |
| Target participants | Teachers |
| Main pedagogical focus | Understanding the religious meaning of water through traditions, believer testimony and artistic expression. |
| Learning sequence | From knowing to understanding; from understanding to living. From conceptual analysis to experiential expression. |
| Main classroom transfer | Religion classroom; interreligious dialogue; religious diversity and sustainability. |
Objectives and classification
| Content focus | Religion and water; water in religious traditions; values, resistances and prejudices in relation to religious diversity and sustainability; watercolour as expression of the future. |
| Basic didactic idea | The activity moves from the familiar to the diverse, from knowing to understanding and from understanding to living. |
| Connection to religious sustainable development | The activities address religious diversity, sustainability, care for the planet, and the connection between faith, values, water and peace. |
| Interreligious connectivity | The activity opens interreligious perspectives through group presentations on religious traditions, direct or recorded believer testimony, active and silent listening, and an interview task with someone from a different religious tradition. |
| Outcome of the session | Participants present religious traditions, formulate questions, reflect on values and barriers, create a watercolour vision of the future, identify one word of discovery, and prepare a short audio interview. |
Competencies and learning objectives
| Religious and symbolic understanding | Participants identify the theological and symbolic meaning of water in a religious tradition and connect it with rituals, texts and transformation. |
| Interreligious competence | Participants encounter the voice of a believer from another tradition and compare this lived testimony with prior ideas. |
| Reflective self-awareness | Participants examine their own religious values, reservations and prejudices in relation to religious diversity and sustainability. |
| Dialogue and listening competence | Participants practise active and silent listening during small-group sharing and open questions after presentations. |
| Artistic and symbolic expression | Participants use watercolour to express a vision of the future, the role of water and the role of faith or values. |
| Transfer competence | Participants prepare an independent audio interview with someone from a different religious tradition about religion, water and peace. |