a digressive post

After thinking about the Booking Through Thursday questions in the last post, I found this article.

Dr. Stephen Prothero has been "conducting informal tests of the religious knowledge of undergraduates and what he finds is disturbing. Students have told him that it was Moses that was blinded on the road to Damascus and that Paul led the Israelites on their exodus out of Egypt. He notes that more scientific polls have found that only one out of three US citizens is able to name all four Gospels and that one out of ten think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Small wonder, he writes, that noted pollster George Gallup has concluded that the United States is 'a nation of Biblical illiterates'." (emphasis mine)

"On the principal that it is better to light a small candle than to curse the darkness Prothero’s book offers a set of proposed remedies based on his hope that 'the Fall into religious ignorance is reversible.' Among those remedies the most controversial is his call for the teaching of the Bible in American public school classrooms, not simply as literature but also a study of the Bible’s impact on history. As the professor notes, teaching about religion as opposed to preaching about it, is not prohibited by the First Amendment’s ban on an 'establishment of religion.'"

At the risk of offending some, I have to say that I agree. The Bible's impact on literature and history is worth examination.

And what of Joseph Campell in the examination of world religions? In The Power of Myth, Campbell and Bill Moyer's exchange views about the importance of myth in civilization and in individual lives.

Belden C. Lane's The Power of Myth: Lessons from Joseph Campbell begins: "Theology and myth are stepsisters of truth. The one probes with questions, the other spins out tales on gossamer threads. But both serve a common mystery."

Also from Belden: "Simply put, theology gets caught up too often in explaining the meaning of life instead of seeking an experience of being alive."

Oops, I'm wandering again... One subject leading to another. I think what I'm saying is that theology and myth have importance in our lives -- and learning more about religious works can be useful in ways we aren't even aware of. Western literature draws heavily on the the Bible and without understanding the allusions and symbols, much of the impact of the literature is lost. A general knowledge of myth and world religions adds to our appreciation of what we read.

Booking Through Thursday

I skipped Booking Through Thursday last week because I've already shown my reading chair inside and because my outside spot is such a thorough mess with all of the stuff that accumulates in that area during this time of year, I'm too embarrassed to share. I intended to get it cleaned up so I could take a picture, but it remains in sorry shape.

This week, though...

Booking Through Thursday

1. Just out of curiosity, as we enter into Passover and Easter season . . . have you ever read the Bible? Just the odd chapter or Psalm? The whole thing? (Or, almost the whole thing? It's some heavy reading, of course, and those "begats" get kind of tedious.)

Not in its entirety, although I tried several times when I was young. I've read quite a bit, though of both the Old and New Testaments.

2. If so, was it from religious motivation or from a literary perspective? Stuck with nothing else to read in a hotel room the Gideon's have visited? Any combination?

I was motivated by both religious and literary reasons.

3. If not, why not? Against your religious principles? Too boring? Just not interested? Something you're planning on taking care of when you get marooned on a desert island?

To turn the question around and respond to why I have read - I think religion is interesting for its own sake...and not just the Christian religion. As I've grown older, I have found it appalling how little even people who attend church every Sunday know about their own religion. On Jay Leno one night, he asked questions about the Bible that I'd think anyone would know, but the responses were hard to believe. Surely, they edited out the people who knew who Cain and Abel were, an approximation of when Jesus lived, had heard of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc. ?

The Bible has had such a huge impact on literature. How can you understand some of the greatest literature of the Western world without a basic knowledge of the Bible? The language is beautiful...well, The King James Version, anyway.

4. And while we're on the subject . . . what about the other great religious works out there? Are they more to your liking?

I'm not sure what is intended by the question. I've read bits of the Koran, the Torah, the Upanishads, but excerpted in other works; I've read about Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, etc. I've read Dante's Inferno, Paradise Lost, Gilgamesh, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins and lots of other religious authors, poets, and literature. And I own quite a number of Joseph Campbell's books and frequently refer to them.

The upshot is that I have very little in depth knowledge about other religious works; a wide smattering of information. This week's Booking Through Thursday has really made me think.