Religious Studies – Research Paper

Marlon Moss

Ohio Christian University

Ministry Essentials (ONMA60)

Dr. Mark Godbold, Professor

16-November-2022
 The Decline of Religious Studies in American Higher Education

Abstract

The United States of America has seen a rapid downtrend in the public’s inclination toward

religion in recent decades. This has been attributed to the fact that the United States is a country

that was founded on religious freedom in the first place. However, it is beyond doubt that

religion plays a central role in the lives of human beings; including the culture, politics, bilateral

relations with other countries, employment, training of new generations, industry, and

subsequently the economy. Therefore, religion cannot be neglected in the entire sense and

significant steps need to be taken to incorporate it back into our Higher Education System and

our culture by highlighting its importance to the masses.

Introduction

Religion plays a vital role in shaping any culture. This ranges from developing critical thinking

skills to behaving in a sociable and ethical way for existing in society. Particularly, in the context

of a religiously diverse society such as the United States, the need for the masses to equip

themselves with religious knowledge is even more significant. The public needs religious

knowledge to protect their legacy and to preserve their values. Even more importantly, the vast

majority of America’s immigrant community is from Asian, Muslim, and Jewish countries where

the religion holds even more importance. Understanding their religious values to some extent can

help understand their culture and maybe improve business dealings with them. Even more

important is the place of religion in the US constitution. Many of the population believe that the

constitution requires a US federal office holder to be sworn in using the Bible, but in reality,

there is no religious test requirement for holding a public office. Similarly, the surveys have

shown that in the recent decade, the number of college graduates opting for a religion major has
significantly fallen, especially after the 2008 recession and the more recent COVID-19 pandemic

(Magness, 2022). In such a scenario, there is a call for the leaders of higher education institutions

to recognize the importance of religious studies in higher academic institutions and take steps for

its revival.

Religion in the Contemporary Scenario

In recent years, seeing the decline of religious education in the USA, several surveys have been

performed by religious institutions, both academic and non-academic to have a picture of the

contemporary situation among American youth and adults. These surveys included both verbal

and non-verbal questionnaires to access the subject’s religious knowledge. The questions asked

included the definition of atheist, Eastern Sunday, Ramadan, the percentage of the Jewish

community in America, and about Vedas. Most of the adults knew about atheism and a few

about agnosticism. Only twenty percent knew about the proportion of the Jewish community in

the US and the Hindu scripture Vedas. Many were familiar with Ramadan and had

misconceptions about the actual meaning of the day of Easter. The other questions were about

the Jewish year Sabbath, Esther, religion and holding a US federal office, Kabbalah, Jewish

holiday Rosh-Hashana, the Ten Commandments, and the Muslim population in the US. The

answer to the majority of these questions was known by less than 30% of the survey participants.

Overall, the US Jews turned out to be the most knowledgeable about the religion and the

Evangelical Protestants got the most questions correct related to Christianity (Center, 2019).

Moreover, American adults who knew people of different faiths had more knowledge about

religion in general.

Another interesting question in the survey was about the US constitution and religion. The

question asked was about the requirement of a certain religion for holding a public office. Only
one-fourth of the population answered correctly that no religious test is necessary for holding a

federal office in the United States according to article six of the constitution. This question was

answered correctly by most atheists, agnostics, and Jews (Center, 2019). The ones wrong were

the Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons who believed that the US office requires an individual

to be sworn in using the Bible.

The next question that comes to mind is about the factors that play a role in an individual’s

religious knowledge. Surprisingly, affiliation with religion was only one of the many factors.

One big factor was that the Americans with religiously diverse social circles knew more about

religion than any other group. Another big factor was higher education. Adults with college

degrees answered more of the questions correctly than the ones without a college degree.

Similarly, the ones with a post-graduate degree performed even better and turned out to be more

religiously equipped than the ones without. The people with lesser education i.e. high school

graduates scored considerably lesser. The Christians who studied the Bible themselves and

listened to podcasts and other online material had better knowledge than the ones without. The

same goes for the church-going Christians who displayed a far better knowledge base. The

whites displayed a better religious knowledge base as compared to the blacks and Hispanics. The

factors taken into account for the analysis of religious knowledge were religious affiliation, age,

education, gender, race and ethnicity, region, and marital status. The analysis results revealed

that education was the leading factor in having good religious knowledge compared to all other

factors (Teagle, n.d.). The survey also revealed that having more religious knowledge about a

certain religion such as Islam, Judaism or Buddhism leads to warmer feelings towards that group

which further highlights the importance of religious education in a culturally diverse society i.e.

the USA.
Impact of Decline in Religious Studies and The Religious Freedom

The importance of lacking religious education can be further highlighted by the impact that it

had on the new adult generation. Religion offers a set of moral and philosophical principles upon

which an individual should base his life. These principles set a human being apart from other

individuals and separate humans from animals. It offers freedom in the form of responsibility

that one needs to have for leading a better life at both personal and collective levels. It tells the

importance of having a family and one’s place in society. However, the freedom that the current

adult generation wants is neither about taking responsibility for leading a better life. This has

been about shirking responsibility, worldly pleasures, and leading a luxurious life free of all the

world's troubles. In a short term, this can work, but in the long run, it leads to the destruction of

society. In the Bible, it says, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up

for evil, but living as servants of God.” (Peter 2:16). Similarly, in the Galatians, it is mentioned,

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for

the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13). These verses reveal the true

meaning of freedom upon which the United States of America is based that further leads to

prosperity and economic growth at a personal and nationwide level.

In light of the above research, it is evident that religious education plays a role in shaping an

individual’s personality, developing harmony among humans of different religions, cultivating

growth and family system and the most obvious way to incorporate religion back into our lives is

through religious education. Thus, significant steps need to be taken to bring out the importance

of religion among the masses and put emphasis on opting for religious majors in American

Higher Education Institutions. This is addressed to both the general public and the leaders of

higher education institutions who can play roles in bringing out these significant changes.
Conclusion

In conclusion, this research paper throws some light on the deteriorating health of religious

education in the United States by using various survey results and previous research work. It

further gives an insight into the near-future impact this condition could have on the upcoming

generation and subsequently the country itself. Lastly, it concludes by calling to the authorities

and the public, the necessity of these steps and the role they play in shaping society and bringing

further prosperity to the country.

 References

Magness, J., & Mitchell, M. M. (2022). Religious Studies & the Imagined Boundaries of

the Humanities. Daedalus, 151(3), 166–179.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/48681151

Center, P. R. (2019, July 23). What Americans Know About Religion. Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/

Teagle Working Group, A. (n.d.). The Religion Major and Liberal Education – A White Paper.

Aarweb. https://www.aarweb.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Data%20and%20Studies/

Teagle/Teagle_WhitePaper(1).pdf