Religious Literacy.

RELIGIOUS LITERACY By Stephen Prothero (Harper San Francisco, 2007)

Sociologist Peter Berger once quipped that if India is the most religious country in the world and Sweden the least, then the United States is "a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes." The irony is that the average Swede may know more about religion than the average American. In Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't, Stephen Prothero cites surveys showing that only half of Americans can name one of the four Gospels and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount.

It was not always thus. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Americans handed down their faith to their children through a network of institutions such as households, churches, and schools. While many believe the decline of these institutions began in the 1960s, Prothero argues that the critical turning point was the 19th-century Second Great Awakening, which valued religious experience more than doctrinal knowledge.

Prothero's concern with the decline of religious knowledge is more civic than ecclesial. Without it, Americans will not be able to understand their own history, nor will they be able to understand current events--like those in Iraq--where religion plays a dominant role. His book concludes with a recommendation that schools teach religion as an academic subject.

Some will certainly find points to argue with. If evangelical Christianity stresses experience at the expense of knowledge, why do evangelicals score better on the aforementioned surveys than mainline Protestants? Catholics perusing his 84-page "Dictionary of Religious Literacy" may be surprised to learn that Vatican II was only "the second great council of the Roman Catholic Church" rather than the 21st.

But Prothero has put his finger on a genuine problem. If citizenship requires religious literacy, even more so does discipleship. Prothero reminds us of the importance of passing on the fullness of the faith we have inherited.--J. Peter Nixon