Talking About Religion and Culture
Teaching Americans about Religion
Americans are among the most religious people in the world, but in terms of knowledge about religion we have lost our way, Prothero says. “Religion is a conversation stopper of sorts, because when politicians appeal to religion in making an argument against abortion or for environmentalism, way too many of us go mum because we don't know enough about religion to engage the debate,” he says. What we don't know about religion—both other people's and our own—can hurt us as a society: we don't ask hard questions of our politicians and pundits because we don't feel we know enough to do so. “Democracy works only when citizens are informed,” Prothero continues. “And since lots of public policy debates implicate religion nowadays, we need to know something about religion in order to be effective citizens.”
In his new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—And Doesn't, Prothero proposes a solution to the problem of religious ignorance: he argues that religion does indeed belong in our public schools—not as theological training or indoctrination but as a means of providing Americans with basic information about the world's religions. His reasons are persuasive and multifold, ranging from the importance of better understanding the current political situations in the Middle East to the civic responsibility to comprehend court cases on intelligent design in schools—or even to know what President George W. Bush was getting at when, in his first inaugural address, he promised that “When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.”
“Lots of public policy debates implicate religion nowadays. We need to know something about religion in order to be effective citizens.”
In Religious Literacy, Prothero traces the history of religion's place in American education from its roots in the 17th century, when Protestant theology was a central part of children's education, through a series of turning points in American religious literacy, such as the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s and the Supreme Court decisions that in the 1960s banned prayer and Bible reading from public schools.
Due to a misunderstanding about the meaning of those decisions, many Americans now believe that religious studies can't be taught in schools. Prothero argues that this notion is both mistaken and damaging to a population that's increasingly ignorant about religion. And he goes on to propose that we remedy that ignorance by integrating the study of religion into public school and university curricula.
His ideas may be unorthodox, so to speak, but people are paying attention. He's been profiled in Newsweek and has spoken about the book on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and numerous other television and radio broadcasts. Legislators and school administrators, including those at BU, are taking his recommendations into consideration as they reappraise their curricula. And, perhaps most importantly, the book has jump-started a national conversation on these issues, engaging Americans in thinking and learning about what we—and others—believe.
For more information, see www.stephenprothero.com.
