'Religious Literacy' Author Kicks Off Religious Awareness Week
Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy, spoke to college students Monday during an event seeking to promote religious tolerance by raising cross-religion awareness.
The best-selling author argues that religion should become the "fourth R" of American education, rounding out reading, writing and arithmetic.
It would be a way to combat religious illiteracy among Americans and make it easier to live in a globalized world, he argues in his book.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
On Monday, Prothero, who chairs the Department of Religion at Boston University, helped kick off Religious Awareness Week at Northwestern University in Chicago, the North, the school's publication, reported.
Event organizer Collin Johnson, member of NU Council of Religions and University Christian Ministry, told the school paper that Prothero argues for much of what the five-day event strives for.
"In America, religious awareness has gone down recently," said Johnson. "Being aware of different religions helps promote tolerance among groups; they have more of an understanding of religion than just what the media gives them."
The event comes after a recent report showed Islam to be among the fastest growing religions in the world. For the first time in history, Muslims have now outnumbered Catholics in the world, according Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
Prothero participated in an afternoon forum on Monday with Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core, a group promoting religious pluralism, before giving his own speech later that evening.
In his 2007 book, published in paperback last month, Prothero reveals that only 10 percent of American teenagers can name all five major world religions while 15 percent cannot name even one.
He further points out in his book that while 90 percent of the nation say they subscribe to a Christian faith, only half of Americans can name all four Gospels in the Bible.
The author says it's false to assume that all the major religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are essentially all the same, according to a contributing opinion piece he wrote for Newsweek's cover story on "Global Literacy."
"Coming at the problem of religion from the angle of difference rather than similarity is scary," Prothero wrote in the July 2-9, 2007, issue.
"But the world is what it is. And both tolerance and respect are empty virtues until we actually understand whatever it is we are supposed to be tolerating or respecting."
A Hindu Student Group meeting was scheduled to follow Prothero's speech Monday. On Tuesday, organizers will hold an Interfaith Hall Game Night. Student meetings on Buddhism, Mormonism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism throughout the week will cap off the event at NU.
Religious Awareness Week is sponsored by the university's Office of the Chaplain and supported by the Religion Department, according to the North.
