Globally, there are different definitions of religious literacy. Each one varies in detail and relates to the history and nuances of each context too. For example, my team at the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy has a specific Canadian approach to religious literacy in order to relate our work to the unique social, political, economic, and cultural history and current realities in the many regions of Canada. Most scholars agree on common foundations that are discussed in this YouTube video from Harvard University’s MOOC, depicted above.
As a Canadian, my approach to religious literacy is based on the conception of civic religious literacy used by the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy in Canada:
- Understanding the internal diversity within worldview groups;
- Understanding the external diversity across worldview groups;
- Recognizing the influence that socio-cultural, political, and economic aspects of society have on worldview groups, and vice versa, in the past and present;
- Recognizing the need to include religious, spiritual, and non-religious worldviews in the full conversation;
- Recognizing that worldviews hold a significant personal meaning to the religious, spiritual, and non-religiously affiliated individuals. This leads us to discuss these worldviews from an individual or community’s distinct lens and not from the worldview of another person/group, and know that individuals who share the same worldview may have diverse beliefs, expressions, interpretations, and terminology to describe it based on a number of factors (such as personal circumstance, place, political context, etc.).
On this basis, religious literacy is a form of citizenship education that develops the attitude, skills, and knowledge students need to recognize and respect the religious and non-religious other (see the work of Adam Dinham, Robert Jackson, Siebren Miedema, Diane Moore, Stephen Prothero, and others, for more info). A clear summary of religious literacy as a form of citizenship education is shared here.
To discuss this in detail for the Canadian context, and how it relates to professions, regions, and communities in Canada, please feel free to contact me directly at ac@ccrl-clrc.ca.
Several valuable and informative online resources are available to help one become more religiously literate too.
To increase your own religious literacy, visit one of the resource pages to learn more:
W. Y. Alice Chan 