From one of my students who does.
“You can teach the Bhagavad-Gita all day long. You can teach the Koran all day long.”
College students are biblically illiterate, according to a Templeton Foundation study:College students need to be more familiar with the Bible, according to a report based on a survey of 39 English professors from different types of institutions across the country.
Eighteen of the English professors surveyed said students know less about the Bible now than when the professors began teaching. All but one of the professors said knowledge of the Bible was important for students in their classes.
Some biblical knowledge is ‘absolutely requisite,’ according to Ernest B. Gilman, a professor of English at New York University. He said some freshmen are surprised that passages from the Bible are on the syllabus when they come to college.
Is this a surprise? How can you understand Milton or Shakespeare, Hobbes (especially) or Locke, Bacon or Galileo, Nietzsche or Kierkegaard without a working Scriptural literacy? It is without a doubt the most important single collection of documents in the Western traditions, as well as exercising influence upon some Eastern traditions. We can at least insist upon literacy.
…not that students are expected to read Milton or Hobbes anyway.
(Via The Weekender Blog.)
