‘Religious Literacy’: Some Considerations and Reservations

What is it about?

The article critiques a current vogue for promoting "religious literacy" as a raison d'etre for the academic study of religion. Commonplace claims about the pro-social effects of knowing about religion(s) (i.e., reducing violence, promoting civic engagement, etc.) are scientifically unfounded. Instead, they derive from a tradition linking a variety of "literacies" to spiritual and moral improvement, both individually and collectively. Thus, current "religious literacy" advocacy operates as a special case of Harvey Graff's famous "Literacy Myth", which had it origins in the Reformation and was fully developed in 19th century counter-Enlightenment and Victorian social reforming milieus. This accounts, further, for the concurrent appearance of religious literacy programs in academic institutions...as well as in institutions of incarceration. The easy success of the religious literacy paradigm may, finally, be considered a sign of the ongoing "ex-theological" character of Religious Studies.

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