Why the Secular Academy Needs Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy

Abstract

I make the empirical argument that most of humankind and much of the academy practices one form of religion and/or spiritual practice. And yet, in public life, secularity is assumed and regularized as rational and life giving. Recent science shows the power of spirituality and religion for human flourishing. And yet, many secularists diminish religion and assume the worst about it without evidence. I argue that cross-cultural religious literacy (CCRL) is and can be an essential tool toward greater public understanding and a more productive dialogue between religionists and secularists in the academy and beyond.

Keywords:

• none zone
• radical empiricism
• secularism
• secular prejudice
• religious flourishing
• academia
• religious literacy

Notes

1 See Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures, December 21, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/12/21/key-findings-from-the-global-religious-futures-project/

2 See Miller 2021, as well as her recent talk available on YouTube, “We're in a Mass Depression: Can Spirituality Help” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrZqtJH0dhc). Miller argues that a spiritual quest is normal, but Western culture has turned away from it to its own destruction.

3 See the 2022 Gallup poll which shows that the belief of Americans in God has dipped to a new low of 81 percent, down from 98 percent in 1967: https://news.gallup.com/poll/393737/belief-god-dips-new-low.aspx.

4 See a 2010 sociological summary of belief among American professors: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/04/12/are-college-professors-less-religious-than-the-general-population/.

5 See Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures, December 21, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/12/21/key-findings-from-the-global-religious-futures-project/

6 See Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures, December 21, 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/12/21/key-findings-from-the-global-religious-futures-project/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James K. Wellman

James K. Wellman, Jr. is Professor and Chair of the Comparative Religion Program in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. In 2017, he received a Five-Year Term Professorship in Global Christianity; this professorship supports his recent initiative to create a Center for Global Christian Studies at the Jackson School. In 2018, in partnership with Chris Seiple, he developed a college-wide certificate program on Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy, helping those in religious traditions, as well as those without, to understand and learn from each other across religious traditions as well as those with none.