Aliens haven't invaded since my last post, so we've got that going for us. Speaking of unknown religions, several weeks ago I bought a book that's been on my want-list since it first came out: Stephen Prothero's "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't." I was quite pleased to find it in the bargain section of the store, too, priced at a whopping $5.98. (My cover is red, though, not purple).
I've finally gotten around to reading it. I'm not very far in, and I don't know if I agree with EVERYTHING Prothero argues (for example, that the most important elements of religious literacy in America are doctrinal and narrative - I happen to think ritual is just as clutch. But hey, HE'S the chair of the religion department at Boston University, not me), but it's hard not to nod in agreement when you read:
Religious illiteracy makes it difficult for Americans to make sense of a world in which people kill and make peace in the name of Christ or Allah. How are we to understand protests against the Vietnam War, which compelled Catholic priesets to burn draft records in Maryland and Buddhist monks to set fire to themselves in Vietnam, without knowing something about Catholic just war theory and the Buddhist principles of no-self and compassion? How are we to understand international conflicts in the Middle East and Sri Lanka without reckoning with the role of Jerusalem in the sacred geography of the Abrahmic faiths and with the differences between Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia? Closer to home, how are we to understand faith-based electioneering if the "reds" on the Religious Right and the "blues" on the Secular Left continue to stereotype one another as distinct species? Is it possible to weigh the merits of Supreme Court rulings on religious liberty if we are unaware of the legacies of anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, anti-Mormonism, and anti-fundamentalism in American life?Click here for more on the book at the Barnes and Noble website.
