Our Mission
We are a Drake University center for the practice of comparative philosophy of religion, the understanding of local-lived religion, and the cultivation of interfaith literacy and leadership.
Our Vision
We seek to enrich impoverished understandings of religious diversity and to strengthen enfeebled practices of interfaith engagement.
Our Programming
Our Religions of Des Moines Initiatives seek to bring greater awareness and understanding of the diverse religious communities of greater Des Moines. This is achieved through several different means:
- “Religions of Des Moines” courses
- Online guides to local religious communities
- Student-facilitated digital stories about local practitioners’ faith experiences
- A student-written photo narrative about fifteen religious communities in greater Des Moines (A Spectrum of Faith), and
- An ongoing series of “Meet My Religious Neighbor” open houses at local religious communities.
Our Lecture and Dialogue Series in comparative philosophy of religion explores a different religious theme every two years through scholar lectures, practitioner dialogues, and comparative conclusions. Each series’ lectures and conclusions are published through a book-series publishing contract with the international publisher Springer. Each semester a Drake University course in Comparative Religion accompanies the series.
We also now cultivate Interfaith Literacy and Leadership with college and high-school students through a Drake University student group, a class in interfaith understanding and engagement, and a yearly interfaith youth camp. Soon we hope to establish a minor in interfaith studies.
Our People
Our director is Tim Knepper, Professor of Philosophy at Drake University; Leah Kalmanson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Erin Lain, Associate Provost for Equity and Inclusion, are our co-directors.
Our “Meet My Religious Neighbor” open-house series is a collaboration with the Des Moines Area Religious Council, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, and CultureALL.
Our Interfaith Youth Leadership Camp is a collaboration with the Des Moines Area Religious Council, especially Sarah Trone Garriott and Luke Elzinga .
Our Advisory Board is currently served by Dr. Richard Deming, Matthew Mitchell, Arthur Neis, Lyle Simpson, David Skidmore, and Mary Pat Wohlford.
The students in Prof. Knepper’s “Interfaith @ Drake” and “Religions of Des Moines” classes are our “hands and feet,” assisting with everything from communications and publicity, to social media and website, to strategic planning and grant-writing, to programming and evaluation.
Adam Heater has redesigned our website and is currently maintaining it.
Our Funding
The Comparison Project is generously supported by the following donors:
- Drake University Humanities Center
- Humanities Iowa
- The Medbury Fund
- Drake University Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship
- Des Moines Area Religious Council
- Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation
- Slay Fund for Social Justice
- Iles Funeral Homes (our special partner for our series on death and dying)
Help
We are always looking for help! Contact comparisonproject@drake.edu if interested.
Contribute
There is so much more that we can do! What prevents this most is money. If you want to support our programming, please do so here: https://alumni.drake.edu/comparisonprojectsupport
Learn More
This summer (2017) we wrote a TCP Strategic Plan and TCP Balanced Scorecard. If you want to know about some of our future plans, check out these documents.