Stephen Prothero is chair of the religion department at Boston Univ. This book also has a concise 85-pp Dictionary of Religious Literacy. His American Jesus received high recognition. He writes and reviews for several leading newspapers. In 2007 Amazon.com listed a dozen books by him.

The title is provocative. Why? In the Appendix’s “Religious Literacy Quiz” only 11% of the students in his class on the introduction to religious studies pass on day 1. Only 10% of teenagers can name five major world religions; 15% can’t name any. Only half of American adults can name one of the four Gospels. Most Americans can’t name the first book of the Bible. So Americans are religiously illiterate, yet politicians base public policy arguments on religious rhetoric whose meanings are missed – or misinterpreted – by the vast majority of Americans. Prothero makes a strong case for overcoming our religious illiteracy by education - he believes that we must teach the fourth “R” of Religion alongside the basic three R’s of “reading, writing and arithmetic,” like we used to do in the early days of American education.

The scope of this shocking yet enthralling book is well told by it’s chapter titles: Ch 1 is A Nation of Religious Illiterates, Ch 2 is Religion Matters, Ch 3 is Eden (What We Once Knew), Ch 4 is The Fall (How We Forgot), Ch 5 is Redemption (What to Do?). His Introduction and Ch 1-5 form his historical arguments. Ch 6 (85-pp Dictionary of Religious Literacy) is limited to address that which a religiously literate American should know. I found Ch 6 so compelling I read it straight through, even though I had occasionally looked up his entries when reading Ch 1-5. For clarification, Stephen Prothero advocates “religious studies” that avoid any bias towards or against any particular religion. Education, not conversion, is the goal.

Although I did quite well on his exam, I still learned a lot from this very timely book – that’s why I used above the words shocking yet enthralling. I emphatically agree that our citizens badly need to learn the fourth “R” – our religious ignorance doesn’t help us in today’s world whose global connections involve cultures and not just business. Knowledge is always far better than ignorance. We have too much “religious babble” in our culture. I feel strongly that this book should be read by all. Those brave enough to take his “Religious Literacy Quiz” will quickly find out how much they know or have yet to learn about the religions of the world. I have included it at my church in an adult book discussion group. I recommend this book very highly to all Americans, especially to those (usually fundamentalists) who either bask in their ignorance or fear learning about any other religion.