Institute for Communication and Religion Partners With Interreligious Studies Media

The Institute for Communication and Religion (ICR) is proud to announce its new role as the first full partner of Interreligious Studies Media (ISM), a national nonprofit dedicated to maintaining the Journal of Interreligious Studies (JIRS). With this new relationship, Seton Hall joins together with Hebrew College; Boston University’s School of Theology; the Institute for Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Studies; and Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.

As a full partner, Seton Hall and the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media (CHDCM) will play an integral role in developing and promoting Inter/Sections, a podcast produced by the ICR exploring lived interfaith experiences and innovative teaching strategies in interreligious studies. The pilot season has already produced five successful episodes.

ICR Director Jon Radwan explained the significance of the partnership at a recent event. 

With this new relationship, we join highly respected schools in supporting interreligious and interfaith scholarship. This is a very important area of communication research. If we only learn about our own spiritual traditions, at best we lack global perspective, and at worst religious extremism trends into violence. In my view religious tolerance is an important step but it is not enough for genuine peace. We need to actively seek one another out and build one another up. Nostra Aetate says it really well. As we advance interfaith work, we can ‘recognize, preserve and promote the good’ we encounter in neighbors and their ways of being spiritual. Everyone should learn and mutually engage because knowing one another expands everyone’s conception of the good.

The partnership demonstrates Seton Hall’s ongoing dedication to promoting ethical, inclusive and collaborative scholarship across religious and cultural boundaries. The project was formally underwritten for 2025 through 2028 via the office of Father Gerry Buonopane, vice provost of academics and Catholic identity and a member of the ICR steering committee. He shared his thoughts on the partnership:

Seton Hall University supports and embraces interfaith dialogue and this strategic partnership with ISM will expand our efforts to foster mutual understanding, respect, and collaboration among individuals of different religious backgrounds, both on our campus and in the far wider community. I commend ICR and Dr. Axel Takacs for initiating this partnership, which will serve as a strong expression of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, of which interfaith dialogue is a key part. The ICR-ISM partnership will benefit the entire Seton Hall community, students, and scholars alike, allowing for discussion of social, spiritual, and theological issues across various communication platforms.

Founded in 2009, JIRS has emerged as a leading academic platform for exploring timely issues across religious traditions. It is academic, double-blind peer-reviewed, international and — thanks to Seton Hall’s support — JIRS can remain open-access, resisting a trend toward subscription-only academic publishing. It is distributed quarterly and has gained international recognition, drawing over 10,000 readers per issue and expanding into webinars, podcasts and volumes published through Interreligious Studies Press. 

Axel Takacs, Th.D., assistant professor of comparative theology and interreligious studies in the Department of Religion at Seton Hall, has been the editor-in-chief of the JIRS since 2017. He has managed and edited 25 issues, co-edited two print volumes with Interreligious Studies Press and organized several webinars. 

“Having been at Seton Hall for a few years now, it made sense to reach out to CHDCM and the Institute for Communication and Religion regarding this partnership,” said Takacs. “Both ISM and the ICR share a commitment to fostering interreligious/interfaith dialogue, education and scholarship. Many of my colleagues in the Department of Religion likewise teach and research on topics related to interreligious studies and comparative theology. It was a natural partnership!” 

To support growth and ensure long-term sustainability, Takacs and JIRS recently launched Interreligious Studies Media (ISM), a 501(c)3 nonprofit. ISM’s mission is to provide platforms for distributing critical and innovative scholarship and pedagogies in interreligious and interfaith studies and related disciplines.

About the Institute for Communication and Religion
The Institute for Communication and Religion (ICR) is an affiliated unit within Seton Hall University’s College of Human Development, Culture, and Media. Religious traditions are primary drivers for social action across humanity’s full moral range, from care through violence. Launched with THRUST funding in fall 2017, the ICR is an interdisciplinary nexus for communication and media scholarship addressing the critical intersection between religion and society. Guided by Nostra Aetate’s spirit of ecumenical and interreligious cooperation, the Institute seeks to engage in public dialogue and debate, promote academic inquiry and support religious dimensions of creativity. Our values are Seton Hall’s values: servant leadership, curricular innovation and intellectual excellence.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Faith and Service