Overview

Sometimes a conundrum creates opportunity to go back to basics. This book was inspired by productive irritation arising from a conundrum at the intersection of three worlds Van Arragon inhabits, each of which holds assumptions about religion and religious literacy. The author's personal world, professional life as an educator in a Christian school system, and the academic world he entered after retirement all worked with ideas about religion, including what it is and its purposes in individual and collective lives. Though each assumes its ideas are true, these worlds live in creative tension with each other. Even though people are obsessed with religion in this secular age, we don't know what to do with it, and it lives on the margins of educational respectability. Readers can join Van Arragon on a trip to resolve key questions of this conundrum: What is religion? What are objections to religion that marginalize it in education? What is literacy? What is religious literacy, and why is it essential for students? The author argues that religion is a foundational human capacity that equips us to ask big questions of meaning and destiny fundamental to education. Religious literacy equips students to successfully navigate their worlds and their own spirit quests and is an essential component of critical thinking.

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Reviews

""Van Arragon rejects the common understanding that religion is a private affair, or that 'public' schools are religiously neutral. Arguing instead that all schools advance some vision of the good life and that religion is of public interest, he creates space for religious education for its own sake. Religious education contributes to civics and character education but cannot be reduced to either because religious literacy is a way of reading the world and living into one's most fundamental commitments of the head, heart, and hands."" --Margie Patrick, Associate Professor of Education, King's University, Edmonton ""This book is the fruit of a deep commitment to education practice, scholarship on religion, and the well-being of students navigating a complex and uncertain world. . . . The questions raised are essential for everyone concerned about the purpose of education in times of deepening division, violence, and environmental collapse."" --Catherine Holtmann, Professor of Sociology, University of New Brunswick ""Carefully and rigorously researched, Reflections on Religious Literacy is a mind-expanding journey toward reshaping our thinking about religion and literacy, education, and the public square."" --Dirk Buursma, Senior Editor-at-Large ---delete this line and above excerpts--- ""Our world is incredibly religiously diverse, from organized traditions to individuals who prefer science, nature, or atheism to those who find themselves somewhere in between. Religion education programs around the world reflect that diversity, to the point of confusion and marginalization in education. Into this breach steps Leo Van Arragon, with his bold assertion that religious education, and specifically religious literacy, is essential to education. After methodically defining and analyzing the terms 'religion' and 'literacy, ' Van Arragon argues that religion is an 'interpretive screen' that enables humans--both individually and collectively within institutions, principles, rituals, and more--to make sense of the world and construct meaning. It is an embodied way of knowing, full of affects, experiences, narratives, rationality, and an element of wisdom. Religious literacy enables citizens to learn about themselves, each other, and the world, critically evaluating the world in its complexity and discussing how to live together well. Van Arragon rejects the common understanding that religion is a private affair, or that 'public' schools are religiously neutral. Arguing instead that all schools advance some vision of the good life and that religion is of public interest, he creates space for religious education for its own sake. Religious education contributes to civics and character education but cannot be reduced to either because religious literacy is a way of reading the world and living into one's most fundamental commitments of the head, heart, and hands."" --Margie Patrick, Associate Professor of Education, King's University, Edmonton Attn MATT and DESIGNER: All ENDs to FM. Please use TOP THREE EXCERPTS on back cover. Please DELETE these excerpts AND THE LINE BENEATH before publication. ""Van Arragon rejects the common understanding that religion is a private affair, or that 'public' schools are religiously neutral. Arguing instead that all schools advance some vision of the good life and that religion is of public interest, he creates space for religious education for its own sake. Religious education contributes to civics and character education but cannot be reduced to either because religious literacy is a way of reading the world and living into one's most fundamental commitments of the head, heart, and hands."" --Margie Patrick, Associate Professor of Education, King's University, Edmonton ""This book is the fruit of a deep commitment to education practice, scholarship on religion, and the well-being of students navigating a complex and uncertain world. . . . The questions raised are essential for everyone concerned about the purpose of education in times of deepening division, violence, and environmental collapse."" --Catherine Holtmann, Professor of Sociology, University of New Brunswick ""Carefully and rigorously researched, Reflections on Religious Literacy is a mind-expanding journey toward reshaping our thinking about religion and literacy, education, and the public square."" --Dirk Buursma, Senior Editor-at-Large ---delete this line and above excerpts--- ""Our world is incredibly religiously diverse, from organized traditions to individuals who prefer science, nature, or atheism to those who find themselves somewhere in between. Religion education programs around the world reflect that diversity, to the point of confusion and marginalization in education. Into this breach steps Leo Van Arragon, with his bold assertion that religious education, and specifically religious literacy, is essential to education. After methodically defining and analyzing the terms 'religion' and 'literacy, ' Van Arragon argues that religion is an 'interpretive screen' that enables humans--both individually and collectively within institutions, principles, rituals, and more--to make sense of the world and construct meaning. It is an embodied way of knowing, full of affects, experiences, narratives, rationality, and an element of wisdom. Religious literacy enables citizens to learn about themselves, each other, and the world, critically evaluating the world in its complexity and discussing how to live together well. Van Arragon rejects the common understanding that religion is a private affair, or that 'public' schools are religiously neutral. Arguing instead that all schools advance some vision of the good life and that religion is of public interest, he creates space for religious education for its own sake. Religious education contributes to civics and character education but cannot be reduced to either because religious literacy is a way of reading the world and living into one's most fundamental commitments of the head, heart, and hands."" --Margie Patrick, Associate Professor of Education, King's University, Edmonton ""This book is the fruit of a deep commitment to education practice, scholarship on religion, and the well-being of students navigating a complex and uncertain world. In advocating for the inclusion of religious literacy as a component of critical thinking, Leo importantly unmasks the issues of power operating in all education systems, secular and religious alike. The questions raised are essential for everyone concerned about the purpose of education in times of deepening division, violence, and environmental collapse."" --Catherin

Author Information

Leo Van Arragon is an independent scholar whose current academic research in the politics of religious literacy draws on his thirty-seven-year career as a professional educator, both as a teacher and a school principal. He did extensive work in curriculum development, where he specialized in the social sciences and religion, and in political advocacy on behalf of privately funded faith-based schools in Ontario.

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