Winter 2012

Did You Know?

  • Every degree program at Luther College offers a study abroad option and an optional experiential learning component where you gain real world experience and get paid while going to school!

  • Luther College students are eligible for nearly $100,000 in academic awards – in addition to scholarships and bursaries awarded by the U of R.

  • The Luther Library has over 24,000 items in its collection, 5,000 books checked out per year, and 7,000 students who come through its door per month.

  • You can book a tour of Luther College, the U of R campus, and our student residence, The Student Village at Luther College, any time throughout the year. Contact our Recruitment Office at 1-306-206-2117.

  • Eating better means studying better. The Luther Cafeteria offers fresh, healthy, nutritious meals seven days a week with a self-serve “all-you-care-to-eat” concept students prefer.

  • Luther College offers Bundles programs that group together first-year students and classes to give you a great start and help ease the transition from high school to university.

  • Luther College is recognized for its high standards of teaching, focused research, and one-on-one academic advising. We value and protect this heritage of excellence in scholarship, freedom of inquiry, and faithful seeking after truth.

  • Our student residence, The Student Village at Luther College, welcomes residents from ALL post-secondary institutions in Regina. Rooms come with a meal plan, free laundry, free wi-fi, and a great sense of community.

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Winter 2012

Introduction

By Yvonne Petry

How do people with divergent – sometimes mutually exclusive – religious beliefs and cultural practices figure out how to live together? In Canada, this question has been posed at numerous points in history and yet, given a new global context, it is one that is still needs to be asked. Lori Beaman, a professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa and a Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada, is one scholar who directly tackles this question and all that it entails.

In her essay, “Deep Equality: Moving Beyond Tolerance and Accommodation” Beaman begins by asking: “What is wrong with ‘tolerating’ others as the basis for dialogue? Why is accommodating someone problematic?” She notes that such concepts are laden with an implicit inequality and are therefore an imperfect starting point for dialogue. Rather than seeing equality as the goal of dialogue, she argues that it must itself become a starting point in order for genuine multicultural and inter-religious dialogue to begin. Her model of deep equality attempts to provide an alternative to merely “tolerating” difference and “accommodating” diversity.

Responses to Beaman’s essay have been written by three of Luther College’s faculty members: Mark Anderson (History), Dorothy Lane (English) and William Stahl (Sociology). Anderson draws on his background in the history of European colonialism to ask whether a notion of deep equality does not in some ways undermine our capacity to critique atrocity and exploitation, both past and present. Lane uses her expertise in post-colonial literature and criticism to reflect on how the language of imperialism is itself entrenched in our political and legal institutions. And Stahl questions whether deep equality goes far enough in addressing questions of social and economic inequality. In her response, Beaman reflects on the path that took her to her current intellectual stance and agrees that the pursuit of answers must go beyond the legal and political realm. This series of essays provides a thoughtful and challenging commentary around issues that are pressing both here in Canada and around the globe.