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An Abbreviated Response to Diane Moore: “Overcoming Religious Illiteracy”

I begin with a deep sense of appreciation for Diane Moore’s presentation and more generally for her work on overcoming religious illiteracy in public life. My response draws on my own quest as a religious educator to overcome religious illiteracy while cultivating, at the same time, competent practice in communities of faith and observance. Although this means we explore the aims and strategies of religious education from different standpoints, the efficacy of our projects depends on the rigor and quality of their interdependence. That concern provides the lens through which I have organized my comments. While our projects share much in common they also challenge each other. Perhaps most obvious is our mutual commitment to addressing the pedagogical challenge of religious illiteracy. Moore relies on the American Academy of Religion’s definition of religious illiteracy (which she had a key role in writing) to provide a framework for addressing this challenge. It involves the mutuality of two pedagogical moves. The first emphasizes the cultivation of “basic understandings of religious history, texts where applicable, beliefs, practices,” and the contemporary forms of “several of the world’s religious traditions and their social and historical contexts” while developing at the same time “the ability to discern and explore” the dimensions and influence of religion in all aspects of contemporary life. I share these concerns, but I also draw on the insights of Bernard Bailyn, Lawrence Cremin, Robert Lynn, and Ellis Nelson to understand the role of religious education in forming and transforming communities of faith and observance as contributing agencies to the civility of societies. This expands my view of religious illiteracy to include attention to the inability of many folks to participate competently in the practices of some religious tradition. Moore consequently challenges me and those who share my views and approaches to religious education to take more seriously the religiously pluralistic environment of the civil societies in which the religious education we espouse occurs. At the same time, our efforts should challenge Moore and other public