What is “Religious Literacy”?

Religious literacy is defined in various ways. However, the common thread is that religious literacy is said to enhance social cohesion by preparing citizens to live in a diverse world. The advocates of religious literacy often claim that due to either secularization or secularism, people have become clumsy with matters of religion. Populations have allegedly lost their ability to engage with religion-related topics and discussions efficiently. Thus, the claim goes that religious literacy enhances the ability to deal with the topic of religion and religious diversity. Building religious literacy is also said to contribute to the fight against racism, discrimination, extremism, and conflict.

These are admirable goals, but the RELIACT project is not about promoting religious literacy as such. Instead, it offers a systematic investigation into the underlying assumptions of religious literacy.  It will empirically scrutinize the relationship between knowledge regarding religions and tolerance and appreciation of religious diversity. Furthermore, it will investigate the relationship between the level of secularization and religion-adeptness. As such, it will contribute to the empirical grounds regarding the discussion on religious literacy, which have, thus far, been mostly overlooked.