Berkley Center

RFGE grew out of the Strategic Religious Engagement (SRE) Hub, an effort initially focused on supporting and preserving the United States government’s capacity for strategic religious engagement in foreign affairs funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. That work continues as part of RFGE, sustaining institutional memory; curating SRE-related documents and resources; convening practitioners, scholars, and current and former officials; and exploring innovative pathways for the field’s continued evolution.

Building on this foundation, RFGE seeks to build a comprehensive ecosystem for religious literacy and religion-aware engagement, creating practical tools and resources for diverse users, strengthening networks and collaboration across sectors, and building systematic capacity for religious literacy across governmental, multilateral, donor, academic, and civil society institutions. Through integrated workstreams that connect academic research with practical application, RFGE aims to cultivate a durable base of knowledge, relationships, training, and public engagement that supports actors working across diplomacy, development, humanitarian response, peacebuilding, and philanthropy, helping ensure that religion-aware approaches become more accessible, actionable, and embedded in how diverse stakeholders understand and respond to global challenges. Its work spans:

• Religious landscape mapping and contextual analysis: practitioner-oriented country profiles and in-depth studies examining religion’s intersections with conflict, governance, development, and social cohesion in strategically significant contexts.
• Expert network development and cross-sector convening: a standing network of current and former multilateral and government officials, practitioners, scholars, donors, and faith-based leaders, connected through roundtables, consultations, and convenings that sustain institutional memory and inform policy and practice.
• Professional training and curricular innovation: workshops and curricular partnerships with academic and practitioner institutions that build a pipeline of religion-literate professionals across diplomacy, development, humanitarian response, and peacebuilding.
• Public engagement and policy dialogue: public programs and partnerships that extend conversations about religion’s role in global affairs beyond traditional foreign policy circles, embedding religion-aware perspectives into broader public and policy discourse.

Together, these workstreams aim to embed religious literacy more fully into policy, practice, education, and public discourse, building durable capacity that supports diplomats, development and humanitarian practitioners, donors, and civil society organizations navigating the complex role religion plays in global affairs.

Hosted by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, RFGE is generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.