Religious Literacy and Its Discontents | Discourse! February 2023

The Religious Studies Project

Benjamin P. Marcus is your host for this month’s episode of Discourse!, the RSP’s monthly, critical take on the category of religion in the news. Ben and his guests, Paulina Gruffman and Charles McCrary, start by looking at a recent Pew survey on religious literacy. What sorts of things do Pew count as knowledge about religion, and what religion(s) do they include? And what does this say about what we as scholars think we are doing when we talk to the public about religion? This leads into a conversation about the coverage of the so-called Asbury Revival. Do we authorise certain voices in the language we use, and whose terms we use? What happens if we describe them differently?

Articles Discussed

• “A nonstop worship gathering at a Kentucky school echoes an old Christian tradition“
• “‘Incredible’ stories of healing, reconciliation emerge from Christian revival at Kentucky college“
• Mike Pence’s Twitter thread on Asbury University Revival
• Enstedt, Daniel. “Religious Literacy in NonConfessional Religious Education and Religious Studies in Sweden“
• “Asbury Outpouring (aka Asbury Revival) | Documentary Film” (YouTube)
• “How much do Americans know about the faiths around them?”