Religious Literacy

Religious Literacy
by Stephen Prothero
Recommended by Nathan from The Church at the Gate

Stephen Prothero is the Chairman of the Religion Department at Boston University. He has an MA from Yale and a PhD from Harvard and may be one of the foremost experts on the history of American Religion.

In his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – And Doesn’t, Prothero reveals the decline of our religious “chain of memory”. His conclusions are often shocking and can be quite controversial and I happen to agree with him a lot more than I don’t (even on the point that the Second Great Awakening stirred the fires for a lot of conversions and was
a great revival for that generation but in the long run it also established a lot of cults and
passion without theology.). For example, he writes, “This story – a tale of the demise of religious knowledge at the hands of people of faith – begins with a catalytic event in American religious, cultural, and social history called the Second Great Awakening.” (p. 89)

Whether you find yourself agreeing with Prothero or not is not what makes this book valuable. The valuable insight that is given is the honest look at the history of religion in America and the subsequent lack of religious literacy today from an objective view. Having been raised in a Protestant church, Prothero still maintains loose ties to the church and worships regularly though church doesn’t seem to be high priority for him. He doesn’t seem to write from the motivation of promoting Christianity, although his concern is that we will loose our “chain of memory” and he makes the case that “religion matters”. In fact, he goes so far as to say that there should be an entire class dedicated to Christianity in every high school and that there should be one other entire class dedicated to the top world religions. These should be taught dispassionately so that every American can function in our current society.

Why? Whether you agree with him or not about his approach to making America religiously literate again, Prothero makes a really good case that we are governed and educated by religious illiterates. We have Ambassadors in Muslim countries that know very little about Islam and we have a White House that often refers to Islam as a peaceful religion. The reader can agree with Prothero when he says that the First Amendment was to protect the church from the government and not the other way around and even ready to admit that our country is a secular nation by law. These are all important issues when it comes to discussing separation of church and state.

Prothero’s conclusions are that in order for us to have a healthy society, we must know some basics about world religions. It’s not enough to add on an elective in a high school or in a college setting. Our families need to teach religion. Our churches need to teach theology better (in fact, he even says that the church has often failed because we divorced the theological head training from the emotional heart feelings when the Puritans did their best to incorporate both). Our schools should teach the basics of religion and we are permitted by the government to do so (just not devotional). He would even add religion as the fourth “R” in our schools, just as important to him as reading, writing and arithmetic.

Overall, I think this book, with its 94-page Dictionary of Religious Literacy is a great primer for every responsible citizen and student of world religions. Making the case that people are often in the dark when people make religious references to David and Goliath, or Abraham and Isaac in political speeches, Prothero himself throws in numerous allusions to the Bible and to religions throughout his book. One time referring to a “Solomonic decision” that needed to be made. With wit and clarity, Prothero gives an excellent case for respecting religions without succumbing to religious relativism.