Rx for a nation of religious illiterates

Mediaculture

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One day some 30 years ago, after a literature class I was taking at a university, an older student who was especially interested in studying literature asked me how I knew so much about the Bible. Our professor had asked some questions about Scripture related to the text we were studying. I had been to Bible college and knew the Scripture references.



I told this man that I knew these references because I had studied Scripture. He was envious; he recognized that if he wanted to understand Western literature, he needed to have a good knowledge of the Bible.

Unfortunately, as Stephen Prothero makes clear in his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t (Harper San Francisco, 2007, $24.95), most people don’t recognize this need.

Prothero makes a strong case that the United States is a nation of religious illiterates and that such ignorance has dangerous consequences in a world where religion plays an increasing role.

He then shows how this illiteracy has increased in the past century. He argues that “teaching about religion is an essential task for our educational institutions,” that “the primary purpose of such teaching should be civic,” i.e., “to produce citizens who know enough about Christianity and the world’s religions to participate meaningfully—on both the left and the right—in religiously inflected public debates. High school and college graduates who have not taken a single course about religion cannot be said to be truly educated.”

Prothero gave his college students a religious literacy quiz (see "Additional Notes" on the bottom of this page), and most of them flunked it. Unfortunately, according to a Gallup poll, born-again Christians are only marginally better informed about the Bible than other students.

This ignorance is reflected in debates between Christians. Prothero writes: “Believers don’t disagree on theology much because theology has ceased to be remembered. They disagree instead on cultural politics—on ‘family values.’ ”

Prothero wants the public schools to teach about religion, which is constitutional. Few do, and as a result, they are not religiously neutral but promote a “culture of disbelief.”

This ignorance also shows up in the current popularity of books promoting atheism, such as The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens.

These and others like them reflect the fundamentalism they abhor and are filled with inaccuracies and misunderstandings about Christianity.

Both these “atheists” and the “Left Behind” writers are heretical and unreasonable. But our nation of religious illiterates snap up their books without any seeming ability to discern what is true or even reasonable.

Literacy takes work and dedication. Not only the nation but the church has failed to do it.

Related Resources

Discussion Guides:

• Discussion Resource I - Oct. 21, 2007
• Discussion Resource II - Oct. 28, 2007

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Additional Notes

1. Name the four Gospels.

2. Name a sacred text of Hinduism.

3. What is the name of the holy book of Islam?

4. Where according to the Bible was Jesus born?

5. President George W. Bush spoke in his first inaugural address of the Jericho road. What Bible story was he invoking?

6. What are the first five books of the Hebrew Bible?

7. What is the Golden Rule?

8. “God helps those who help themselves.” Is this in the Bible? If so, where?

9. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” Is this in the Bible? If so, where?

10. Name the Ten Commandments.

11. Name the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.

12. What are the seven sacraments of Catholicism?

13. What are the two religion clauses of the First Amendment?

14. What is Ramadan? In what religion is it celebrated?