Welcome to the Interfaith Observer!

Exploring Interfaith Culture and Religious Pluralism

The Interfaith Observer thrives in the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE) at Seattle University. The Interfaith Observer releases two multi-author and theme-based volumes in the fall and spring of each academic year, with a focus on first-person accounts on the positive impact of religious and cultural pluralism as a force for good in the world today.

Spring 2026: Personal as Political: Gender, Climate, and Economy

Featured

Healing Division in Our World Through Oneness

by Faith Spencer

Today’s world is fragmented. Most U.S. adults tend to view life through a lens of political party affiliations and “us versus them.” There’s an evolutionary basis for this. In prehistoric days, loyalty to one’s own group (“us”) helped ensure survival, as did a skeptical and distrusting attitude about outside groups (“them”).

Whose Knowledge Counts? Gender, Climate and the Politics of Evidence

by Maurice A. Bloem, Andrés Martinez, and Nora Khalaf-Elledge

Climate change did not arrive in the Arctic through policy frameworks or global summits. It arrived through memory. Vera Solovyeva is an Indigenous Sakha woman from a small village in the Sakha Republic…

From Seattle to the Sierra Huasteca: Building Relationships via a Community-Engaged, Jesuit Research Partnership

by Amanda Heffernan

Since the summer of 2024, I have had the privilege of partnering with Radio Huayacotla, a Jesuit-founded indigenous community radio station in the Sierra Huasteca of Veracruz, Mexico…

Previously: Religion & Healthy Democracy (Fall 2025)

Featured Articles

Freedom at the Fringes

by Ivan Shneerson

I have long struggled to figure out where I belong. This came to a head during my senior year of college when I, an agnostic and low-observant Jew, chose to live in a Christian living community. Forty-nine young Christian men and me. Growing up, my family was…

What It Means to Be Interfaith

by Brandon LaGreca, LAc, MAcOM

My daughter recently reached a pivotal point in her homeschool curriculum: the study of world religions. Until now, my wife and I had been content to let her experience the sublime through nature, art, and music, instilling a subtle sense of…

Countering Islamophobia Through Interfaith Encounters

by Muhammad Sohail

The Muslim world has faced various social, political, and economic challenges recently. Internal divisions, unstable political and social systems, outside interventions, poverty, and unemployment have posed significant barriers to its influence in…

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