Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-And Doesn't Stephen Prothero New York: Harper Collins/ Harper San Francisco, 2007 A spring 2007 seminar marking the seventyfifth anniversary of the Folger Institute in Washington, DC, celebrated "Shakespeare in American Education" from 1607 to (nearly) the present, and a very strong case was made by conference participants for the centrality of Shakespeare for educators But an even stronger case could be made for the historical influence of the Bible in American education According to Prothero's book, "America's first three colleges-Harvard (established 1636), William and Mary (1693) and Yale (1701)-were all founded primarily to educate clergy" (84) So much for the separation of church and state in "the land of the free" early on But over the years, as historian Henry Steele Commager has explained, "Religion prospered while theology slowly went bankrupt," and, to quote Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University, the "battle inside American Christianity between piety and learning [was] a battle that learning lost" If there is a problem today with religious ignorance in America-and there is, as Prothero clearly demonstrates-education is surely the solution, and this book deserves to be in the corrective vanguard Prothero's Religious Literacy, following the example of E D Hirsch's Cultural Literacy (1987), leaves no doubt that religious illiteracy is shamefully rampant in America today A Jay Leno audience could name all of the Beatles, for example, but could not name one of the twelve apostles Examples of stupid answers abound in this book: a majority of youngsters polled, for example, thought that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife and that Thomas Edison spoke the Lordly words of Genesis: "Let there be light" These spectacularly wrong answers involve America's most dominant religion, Christianity Those who could not name the four gospels or the Ten Commandments would certainly do no better with the Five Pillars of Islam Can America be a nation of believers if a majority of Americans do not really know what they supposedly believe? In a war-torn world of paranoia and religious fanaticism, citizens need to be well-informed about distinctions that motivate fanatics who may threaten security This could be simplified by the ignorant to a simple formula, such as "Know your enemy, Islam," but Islam itself, a religion historically known for its tolerance, is not the problem Ignorance is the problem Key concepts of more than passing relevance to the wars in the Middle East (Iraq and Afghanistan notably, so far) are defined in Prothero's eighty-page "Dictionary of Religious Literacy": "Sunni Islam," for example, is the majority branch in the Moslem world, except in Iraq and Iran, where "Shiite Islam" is the majority (at issue here is an ancient schism that developed after the death of the Prophet); the current conflict was influenced by "Wahhabism," a faction of ultraconservative Sunnis, and by the "Taliban," Islamic militants disguised as "students" of religion and the radical core of Al-Qaida, blamed for the attacks of 9/11 and driven by force out of Afghanistan by our avenging army …

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-And Doesn't

Tolerance in the dynamic of Indonesian society and socio-cultural diversity is necessary. It is crucial to examine constitutional regulations as the highest fundamental law. The government has issued various regulations, but the critical question is whether these regulations protect religious freedom. This study aims to figure out how the law of religious tolerance ruled in the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia/ Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945. This research is a type of normative research by describing, analyzing, and describing the constitutional arrangement of religious tolerance as a form of protection of human rights in Indonesia. The approach used is legal by tracing all relevant laws and regulations. The data collection technique used in this study is a library research technique, which is a data collection technique by reviewing journals, rules, regulations, and other related materials related to the law of religious tolerance in Indonesia. The results showed that religious tolerance is a form of protection for human rights recognized in Indonesia as a country with diversity. Tolerance is one of the keys to religious harmony based on mutual understanding and respect as human beings.

Constitutional Religious Tolerance in Realizing the Protection of Human Rights in Indonesia

Oddrun M. H. Bråten: Towards a Methodology for Comparative Studies in Religious Education

Texts, readers, and positions: Developing a conceptual tool for teaching disciplinary reading in religious education

Den nye læreplanen for grunnskolen legger stor vekt på utforsking i alle fag, noe som kommer til uttrykk både i fagenes kjerneelementer og i kompetansemålene. Sammenkobling av ­dybdelæring, utforsking og et bredt kompetansebegrep i fagfornyelsen utfordrer fagdidaktikere til å klargjøre forholdet mellom vitenskapsfag og skolefag. Artikkelen tar opp bakgrunnen for dette innenfor pedagogisk og fagdidaktisk tenkning, og diskuterer om didaktisering av vitenskapelige metoder for skolebruk kan være en vei å gå for å forbedre religionsundervisningen. Diskusjonen knytter an til to innføringsbøker for lærerstudenter, en om religionsvitenskap og en om religionsdidaktikk. Konklusjonen er at utforskende metoder gir noen spennende muligheter i religionsundervisningen, men at forholdet mellom vitenskapsfag og skolefag reiser utfordringer for religionsdidaktikken, som kaller på mer forskning og utviklingsarbeid.
Nøkkelord: Utforskende metoder, didaktisering, religionsvitenskap, dybdelæring, fagfornyelsen

Fra vitenskapelig forskning til utforsking i skolefag

Although religion has played a key role in reading instruction in many education systems, this position has been challenged by increasing religious diversity and the spread of non-religious worldvi...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01416200.2020.1754164

Lars Unstad

Papers

Disciplinary literacy in religious education: the role and relevance of reading

Texts, readers, and positions: Developing a conceptual tool for teaching disciplinary reading in religious education