Religion: Religious Illiterates

“What does this college generation actually know about the rudiments of the Hebrew-Christian tradition?” To this question an article in the Christian Century last week answered: “It is almost illiterate.”

R. Frederick West, who has taught religion in Texas Christian University, Lynchburg College, Va. and Wabash College, Ind., examined “nearly 2,000 students in both church and non-church colleges.” More than half of them, he reported ruefully, spell “prophet” as “profit.”

Almost all had a religious background; in a typical group of 83 in a non-church college only three had none. Of the others, 68 were Protestants, eleven Roman Catholics and one Greek Orthodox. Yet only four of the 83 could list all of the Ten Commandments; 70 could not name the four Gospels; 74 could not describe “even approximately” what Jesus stressed as the two greatest commandments.*

To reach postwar college students, religion “must begin from scratch,” concludes Professor West. He believes that that is perfectly practical. Of the typical college student he writes: “His image of God is vague. But his hunger and thirst after righteousness and the things of the Spirit are keen, even if confused. The Bible is a strange new Book of Life to him. When he has a chance to read it with self-criticism and with Christian guidance, he is fascinated with it and with its lasting insights and demands. In spite of his religious illiteracy, which mirrors our culture and tends to blur his vision of the ‘things which are God’s,’ he is uneasy about the ‘things which are Caesar’s . . .’ His spiritual errors and ignorance often come more from his head than from his heart. Throwing the Bible at him will not heal his hurt, but opening the Book to him might help.”

* Matthew 22:37-39: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”