Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy -- A Review

Stephen Prothero. Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know --- And Doesn’t. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2007. 296 pp.

Ignorance is bliss! Especially when it comes to religion. Or is it? Could Americans be so religiously illiterate that this ignorance could pose a danger to America’s civic life? If Boston University Religious Studies Professor Stephen Prothero is correct, then we’re not only a nation of religious illiterates, that illiteracy could be our undoing as a nation. Such a message is difficult to keep under a bushel, and so Prothero has been featured in a Time Magazine cover story and appeared on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

Prothero likens his book to one that appeared Like E.D. Hirsch’s Cultural Literacy (1987), which warned of a serious deficiency in our cultural IQ. There were, Hirsch contended, certain things we should know to be an educated citizen, things too many Americans didn’t know. Prothero also believes there are certain things we should know as part of an educated citizenry, but far too few of us have this knowledge.

One would think that a book of such a nature would have a religious agenda, but Prothero insists his interests are not religious, but are instead secular and civic. Although he seems at times to pine for an earlier era, one seemingly dominated by Puritans who valued an informed faith, there is more here than simply nostalgia. He is concerned that what we don’t know could hurt us, especially as we debate important civic issues and bring into the discussion our religious views it’s important to have our facts straight.

In some ways Prothero is arguing the flip side of Jon Meacham’s American Gospel. Meacham lauds our ability to balance religiosity and citizenship in a way that brings to bear the moral values of religion without making doctrine central. Prothero thinks doctrine is important and that the boiling down of American religiosity to virtues, values, and morals is a result of anti-intellectualism.

As Meacham and others have argued, we are a religious people. Every poll affirms that Americans are religious, but unlike our irreligious European counterparts, we don’t seem to have a clue as to the nature of our religious professions. It’s not just the “spiritual but not religious” crowd that has a difficulty defining what they believe; it’s Catholic, Mainline Protestant, and even Evangelicals (though they have less difficulty than most).

Despite our seeming ignorance, we are inclined to bring our religion into public life. The charge that the public square is naked, doesn’t jive with the facts. But too often our arguments lack cogency and substance. Ours is a faith without content. Now, as one who is part of a non-creedal church, I was pushed on occasion by his lauding of confession and creed. No, we don’t know the creeds, we who don’t believe in them. But hopefully ours isn’t a faith without content.

So, we affirm that God blesses America, that we are one nation under God, and it is “in God we trust.” Yet, we seem unable to define this God who has a special relationship with us. And so we affirm that great scriptural truth – as penned by Benjamin Franklin – that “God helps those who help themselves.” We have juries guided by the biblical injunction of “an eye for eye” even though Jesus, the one whom a majority of Americans hail as Lord, advises otherwise. Then of course, there are the politicians who call for the posting of the Ten Commandments, but can’t name them. What we don’t know, can be dangerous.

It is an understatement to say that Prothero’s book will be controversial. Not just his diagnosis – that once we were religiously literate, but are so no longer, but also his location of when this change happened will prove controversial. From the diatribes heard these days, you have to believe that prior to those Supreme Court cases of the 1960s everything was wonderful. Not true, says Prothero. The roots of our current state of illiteracy go back well into the 19th century.

Indeed, he traces our current problems to the Second Great Awakening, which put experience above knowledge, emotion above creed, and cooperation above doctrinal distinctions. This was compounded by the Bible Wars that emerged as a largely immigrant Roman Catholic population began to challenge the dominant Protestant culture that controlled the emergent public education system. Horace Mann, the great education reformer, was a Unitarian and he saw religion largely in moral terms. Piety should be encouraged and a lowest common denominator faith should be shared.

To get there, Mann and others insisted on the use of the King James Version. Roman Catholics wanted to use their own translation and protested the Protestant demeanor of public education. They sought public support for their own school system, and when that was denied, they argued that if only the Protestant Bible could be used and their system couldn’t receive support, then perhaps no Bible was best. Prothero notes that the 19th century saw a convergence – the schools abandoned the teaching of religion and the churches by and large stopped teaching the basics of the faith as well.

The book is laid out in three parts. Part One lays out the problem – we’re a nation of illiterates and yet religion matters. Part Two is quite biblical, in a sense. It begins with “Eden (What We Once Knew),” which is a brief history of America’s early education efforts that were rooted in learning the biblical story (Noah Webster’s Speller and McGuffey’s Readers being examples). Then he moves to the “Fall (How We Forgot)” wherein he explores the ironic effect of the demise of Puritanism, the effect of the Second Great Awakening, which deemphasized doctrinal differences, the impact of intolerance toward Roman Catholics, and finally the embrace of morality rather than religious knowledge.

What might be most controversial is Part Three, “The Proposal.” Now he admits that church and family have important roles to play in reclaiming our religious literacy. However, because this is a civic issue we can’t leave it to church and family. Thus, his proposal is to have religion as an objective academic discipline taught in public schools. This is where things get tricky. There are Constitutional issues, but as he demonstrates the Supreme Court has ruled that the academic study of religion is permissible. There is a text book problem – most text books avoid religion like the plague. And of course there’s the teacher problem – most teachers are either untrained in religion or rightfully nervous about talking religion.

Nonetheless religion needs to be taught. In fact he suggests that in High School every student should be required to take a class on the Bible, focusing on the basic stories and the influence of the Bible in Western Culture and political life. He is quite clear that teachers should neither proselytize nor enter into issues of historical criticism. Because of the nation’s growing religious pluralism, students should also take a World Religions Class.

As a religious leader I take part of what he says as an indictment on the church, for we have failed to teach our children or our adults the basics of our faith. Even Evangelical youth have difficulty with naming the Gospels or the Ten Commandments. It is an indictment that we have valued feelings over knowledge, and thus have failed to keep the tension between head and heart. Am I skeptical that we can find the teachers? Yes, but skepticism needn’t keep us from exploring the possibility.

As an aid to our pursuit of religious literacy, Prothero closes his book with a lengthy dictionary. This isn’t meant to be an overview of all religious ideas and personages, just the ones that have civic importance. Thus Hanukkah appears but the much important Yom Kippur doesn’t. That’s because in America, it’s the lesser festival that has the most importance because it’s linked to Christmas.

This isn’t a perfect book. I have qualms with his seeming preference for Calvinism over Arminianism. I’m also unsure about his understanding of ecumenism, which he doesn’t seem to appreciate in the same way I do. Still, I am of the opinion that he’s on to something important here. Whether or not we can get schools to teach about religion we must find ways to be educated about religion. We must realize that religion without content and substance can be misused, and indeed, is being misused. The current debates over creationism and Intelligent Design are symptomatic of this problem.

By the way, just so you know it, there is a quiz here. It’s a quiz Prothero gave to his students at Boston University, a quiz most failed. I took it and did well, but then I’m supposed to know these things. So, whether you agree with his diagnosis or his solution, this is a book that must be read for the good of the nation and also for the church!