In Stephen Prothero’s, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2007), 297 we discover the average American’s lack of religious knowledge. Prothero discusses religious illiteracy in three ways. How it exists, came to be, and just how to possibly solve this problem. Today religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous. Religious illiteracy is more dangerous because religion is the most volatile constituent of culture, because religion has been, in addition to one of the greatest forces for good in world history, one of the greatest forces for evil. Religion has always been a major factor in US politics and international affairs. …show more content…
Prothero demonstrates numerous examples of religious illiteracy. One example was a situation in which he gave a religious literacy quiz to his Boston University students in the spring of 2006. Majority of the students failed this quiz. Biblical illiteracy has been fairly well recognized. According to the Gallup Organization, which has tracked trends in US religion for over fifty years, Bible reading has declined since the 1980s and “basic Bible knowledge is at a record low.” This chapter is full of facts and statistics. This is a great strength as it gives readers a realization that we are seriously a nation of illiterates. This was a great transition from the introduction and it sets up a good case for this …show more content…
I certainly appreciated the perspective that was taken. The book was well written and the reading level did not feel difficult. I think middle school students would be capable of effortlessly reading with comprehension. This is definitely a must read for anyone who has interests in religion. Even if religion is not an interest, this is still a good book to read. The book demonstrates the importance of religious literacy and gives basic knowledge that all Americans need to know. I think the author was successful in writing this. Prothero kept the point right on target and successfully established the problem and a possible solution. I feel that if Prothero had a bias in one area, it was religion. I got the feeling that he focused more heavily on Christianity. I would say this was handled well though and seemed not to exceedingly get in the way. Prothero supported his thesis with much evidence. He shared many facts and statistics. My favorite thing about this book is how it opens your eyes to a much broader knowledge of religion. America is still actually a religious nation even though our knowledge and understanding seems limited. No matter your interests, this is a worthy
In argument for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer, they said that reading the Bible not only was essential to the building of good morals and development of the minds of impressionable school children, it was free to be interpreted anyway because of lack of comment and explanation. They claimed that the Bible was not a religious work, but when viewed from the eyes of a Christian, it did express the message of Christianity.
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
Christianity’s role in America has rapidly changed over the last decades. Although it is still the most popular religion in the country its power over the people has decreased significantly. However, there are still many misconceptions towards American Christianity and in order to understand the unique nature of this religiously diverse country; one must understand its history and its citizens own views on the matter.
When looking at religion from an educational perspective, conflicts may arise due to the various interpretations when analyzing religious text. When differing interpretations appear about various topics, this can then lend itself to starting conflict among people with varying opinions. Using the “The Gay Debate” by Matthew Vines as an example, we are able to look at an individual’s interpretation of the Bible regarding the topic of homosexuality and Christianity. When looking at the argument the reader has to break down the strategies used by the speaker to test its validity and then reflect on the possibility for this deductive reasoning to be applied to other arguments.
Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has Now Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001. Print
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
religious ideals and rhetoric are absolute. Yet, when studying the role of religion in shaping
With sounds of youthful laughter, conversations about the students’ weekends, and the shuffling of college ruled paper; students file into their classrooms and find their seats on a typical Monday morning. As the announcements travel throughout the school’s intercoms, the usual “Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance” becomes no longer usual but rather puzzling to some students. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.” Confusion passes through some of the student’s minds. With the reoccurrence of “God” in the backdrop of American life, the relationship between church and state has become of little to no matter for American citizens just as it has with American students. While congress makes no law respecting an establishment of religion, the term “freedom of religion” presents itself to no longer be the definition of “free”, while also having its effects on debates today. According to Burt Rieff, in Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty, “Parents, school officials, politicians, and religious leaders entered the battle over defining the relationship between church and state, transforming constitutional issues into political, religious, and cultural debates” (Rieff). Throughout the 20th century, many have forgotten the meaning of religion and what its effects are on the people of today. With the nonconformist society in today’s culture, religion has placed itself in a category of insignificance. With the many controversies of the world, religion is at a stand still, and is proven to not be as important as it was in the past. Though the United States government is based on separation of church and state, the gover...
Religion is known to be a set of values, beliefs, and the understanding of life. Every religion has its own different set of beliefs and values. This essay will show how much religion has decreased, why people do not practice religion, and how secularism and the media have played a role in the decline of religion.
Throughout history, religion has impacted the lives of millions whether at school, work, with friends, or by some tragedy. Religion can change the way people view their existence. Religion also plays a big role in the infiltration of values into the loves of many young people today. In a recent pole printed in the USA Weekend Paper, “34% of respondents [said] Religion plays a powerful role in their everyday lives.” These student respondents “cited religion as the second-strongest influence in their lives outranked only by parents.” Religion also surpassed the world-renounced media as an influence in their lives (Lerman. 1).
Introduction: Neither the resolve of patriots nor the labor of men freed Americans from the hands of tyranny. The fathers of this nation, as well as those who fought for her ability to prosper were united by their unwavering faith and trust in God. The future of this world lay heavily upon their shoulders, yet they carried the burden willingly for the duration of their lives and passed it down from generation to generation. As a result, a new nation was born and grew into one of the most powerful countries of the world. Although America began as a Christian nation, it has pulled away from the fundamental beliefs that held this nation together. Despite their ancient predecessor’s emphasis on faith and Christianity, the current government has taken a more secular path. The legality of abortion and the exclusion of religious references in public institutions are a couple of examples how morality has been corrupted within the government. Society itself also forsakes the religious path, twisting the concept of morality to fit the lifestyles they wish to lead. David Barton uses line graphs to demonstrate the decrease of morality since 1950. Violent behavior, the circulation of sexually transmitted diseases, and the birth rate for unwed girls, has drastically inclined while educational achievement and family stability have dropped at an accelerated rate (242). It is apparent through the government’s choices, the media, and the attitudes present in average society that Americans have drifted far away from the principles on which this country was founded. Without a genuine faith and trust in God, American society will continue to deteriorate until memories of a once great nation are all that remains.
In present day United States there is an abundance of problems which attribute to many unhappy citizens. One of those problems being the great influence that religion has on politics; some might say that it’s taking over. While many conservative republicans and devout Christians might argue that allowing religion to influence our politics helps boost the morale of a morally-challenged population, religion, when mixed with politics, only causes deep divides between different political parties and allows unconstitutional laws to be made.
Throughout its history, the United States has characteristically remained a country of two things: a country of immigrants, and a country of unmatched religious diversity. And yet when compared with the rest of the world – where these two very factors alone have so often engendered horrible religious wars and decades of enduring conflict – the history of religious conflict in the United States seems almost nonexistent.
Nord, Warren A. Religion & American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Before reading this book, I was struggling with the amount of reading that college was presenting. White does not waste time and gets to the fact that reading is an act of worship early on. He makes a connection with junk food and reading on page 43. If we feed our body junk all the time, we will become obese and ill. Similarly if all we read is junk, our minds will become ill and not reflect a mind for God (White, 43). When he says this he means that we should be engaging our brains with material that will make us think and grow intellectually. White states that in the middle ages, “learning in and of itself, was sacred, for it was pursuing the very knowledge of God, and life in light of that knowledge” (White, 53). Today learning has become something far from what it was intended to be back in the middle ages. Today we have removed the aspect of God from public schools and we focus on getting the grade instead of the knowledge. White suggests that, “the starting point of our education (or our commitment to learning) is biblical literacy” (White, 57). This fits into the Christian worldview, but not into very many other worldviews. Unfortunately many are biblically illiterate in today’s culture and White mentions several different types of Bible readers in chapter four. He mentions the “service readers,” “devotional