“‘Cause Even Though Perfect It’s Not/ It’s the Best Thing This World’s Got” – or Not?

Abstract

Abstract This short reply considers and rejects from the point of view of Religious Studies, proposals that something of “religious literacy” should be salvaged, either for pedagogical or for other pragmatic purposes. It further rejects suggestions that the critique of religious literacy entails an obligation on the part of the critic to find an alternative raison d’être for Religious Studies. The resonance of religious literacy clearly derives from a powerful legacy of institutional social discipline spanning nearly 500 years; yet only very recently has the concept been re-purposed as core academic mission. Therefore, the costs of abandoning religious literacy now are minimal (except for those institutions who rashly bet everything on the paradigm); by comparison, the costs of pursuing it seem high and include a possible re-assimilation of academic to other historical institutions of social discipline such as penitentiaries (with “residential” and other “reformatory” schools representing significant hybrid or transitional formations).