Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife

No doubt, your college years have brought you well beyond the high school students who think Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife, and Joan of Arc was married, naturally, to Noah. But how do you compare to the adults impassioned to have the Ten Commandments displayed in courthouses but unable to name half of them? Can you name the Five Pillars of Islam or who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (no, not Billy Graham, Dr. Prothero has had to point out) or a single sacred text of Hinduism?

That is from a piece by Peter Steinfels in the Saturday NY Times entitled At Commencement, a Call for Religious Literacy  and drafted in part to appear as if it were a commencement speech,  Steinfels discusses the ideas of Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University.  Come along for a further exploration of the piece, and an offering of my own ideas on the subject.
First, let me warn anyone who has read this far that I have taught comparative religion - in fact just this evening I sent off a detailed email to a woman in California asking about my course, as she is trying to persuade her school to offer one.  I think a person is not fully educated without some understanding of religion that would enable him to avoid the bloopers in my opening quote.  And for our numerous non-religious, let me offer the following: 

What about atheism? Does religious literacy require the study of nonbelief? Certainly, Dr. Prothero said. At least in the West, he explained, atheism is part of the religious conversation: You cannot understand religion in the modern West without taking atheism into account, and you cannot understand atheism without understanding its religious context.

Religious literacy includes understanding those whose orientation is against religion as most know it.

I am offering my snippets almost in reverse order, deliberately.  You can of course simply go and read the entire piece.  Prothero

proposes that all public high schools require one course on the Bible and one on the world's major religions. He proposes that colleges require all students to take one course in religious studies. He thinks that this can be done without proselytizing and fully in accord with the Constitution. (Incidentally, one of the things distressing him is how few college students can identify the First Amendment's two clauses dealing with religion.)

"In today's world it is irresponsible to use the word `educated' to describe high school or college graduates who are ignorant of the ancient stories that continue to motivate the beliefs and behaviors of the overwhelming majority of the world's population," he writes. "In a world as robustly religious as ours, it is foolish to imagine that such graduates are equipped to participate fully in the politics of the nation or the affairs of the world."

Of course neither Steinfels nor Prothero would argue for teaching religion, but rather about religion.  The question is how much suffices.  Steinfels cautions

It may be essential to know the basic doctrines, practices and stories of the world's great faiths - and of atheism, too. But it is also essential to know how these believers and nonbelievers feel and think, and think about what others think about them - the kind of knowledge that requires imagination, empathy or, what college often provides, real encounters.

It is at this point that the teacher in me wishes to step in.  Religion is of course so much more than recitation of doctrine, lists of major figures, labelling the aspects of ritual, and denoting the titles of sacred works.  And I would wonder about the dangers of limiting this to "the world's great faiths" because I am not sure how we reach agreement upon what these are.  Surely any study of religion in the US will include Judaism, even though the world's total population is less than that of the Mormons, or of many "minor" religions or more "primitive" or "pagan" religions in areas as yet not fully evangelized or converted by the "major" faiths. And at times the distinctions within a faith tradition may lead to less recognition or acceptance of others within that tradition than the willingness to honor the traditions of another faith group.  We can look at disputes between Catholics and Protestants and not have to look at the the 16th and 17th Centuries to see violence and destruction (Northern Ireland, anyone?).  Few in the US who are not ethnically from Eastern Europe know much about the Orthodox Churches which stretch from Finland and the Czech Republic (small ones) through the Balkans, some nations of the former USSR, into the Middle East, where at times they overlap with the Oriental Churches who separated themselves at the time of Chalcedon in 451.  Or we could see the disputes between Theravada and Mahaynana in Buddhism. And clearly our lack of understanding of the difference between Shi'a and Sunni has had some tragic consequences in recent years. 

Okay, I've taught the subject, to high school students, to confirmation classes in a synagogue. . .  I am as much of a "junkie" on this as I am on politics... or educational policy.  So I accept that many here will not view this as a subject of as much importance as do I.  But I think it is timely to raise this subject.  Let me offer a few examples - the Georgia legislature has acted to require that an elective in Bible be offered, and a legislator in Texas is trying to emulate that.  In much of this nation students are not exposed to any but one point of view and whatever they may learn about other religions is only how they are inferior to that to which the students and their families adhere.  Actually, that is the mildest thing that can be said.  Students of minority religions are treated as infidels or worse: I could, but will not, list many examples from recent news stories. 

And clearly many in positions of leadership in this nation are as ignorant of religion as they are of science.  After all, we have had Dover ISD and we did have Kansas - oh yes, and on Kansas, a key member of that state board is currently running unopposed for President-Elect of the National Association of State Boards of Education

I have also watched far too much misunderstanding about religion and non-religion in the blogosphere to think other than it would be helpful if more of our students had the opportunity to learn about religion - and atheism.

Yeah, I know it is probably an unreasonable desire on my part.  I do think that one is not fully educated without a proper understanding of a number of domains.  Clearly one needs to understand and be able to use one's own language.  It is often better to have some competence in and understanding of a second language.  And on the same principle one can be a serious adherent of a "religious" point of view (the quote marks thus allowing me to include atheism in this broad span) and it would be similarly useful to have some understanding of a second "religious" point of view.  If we care not going to kill one another over our lack of understanding we need this kind of literacy perhaps as much as we do of mathematical operations and of science.

Perhaps I have this interest because of my own wanderings through various religious traditions.  Certainly it has been increased by teaching students from a wide variety of religious orientations: Sunni and Shi'a and Ismaili Islam, Druze, Neo-Pagan, Wiccan, Mormon, Unification Church, Hindu, various strands of Buddhism, Taoist, Humanist, atheist, agnostic, Jain, Russian-Greek-Rumanian-Albanian-Bulgarian Orthodox, Coptic, ... and if I start to list all the varieties of Western Christianity this diary will become even more intolerable in length.  From my own life and from what I have encountered in my reading and my teaching I believe religious literacy is crucial.

So I have chosen to burn my diary today by posting on this subject.  Perhaps a few of you will be willing to discuss it?  If so, I look forward to the conversation.

Perhaps we can begin by offering examples of some of the hilarious misunderstandings we have encountered, such as those offered in my opening blockquote.  Perhaps it will be something less humorous.  In any event, I do look forward to what you have to say.

Peace.

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