Religious Literacy

Religion is part of everything

RCC helps you talk about it.

To love our neighbor, we have to know our neighbor.

Religion Communicators Council is making religious literacy a priority starting at the 2015 Convention in Alexandria, VA. As communicators of faiths, we know what results when the media and the general public are unable to grasp cultural and religious nuances to the current events that arise in our world today. A lack of understanding of the basic tenets of the world’s religions contributes to more conflict.

As the only faith-oriented, accredited public relations association, RCC has a role to play, by utilizing its interfaith members to help the secular media understand diverse faith dynamics, as well as providing resources to members so they understand other faith traditions besides their own.

What is Religious Literacy?

Diane Moore of the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School defines Religious Literacy as:

“The ability to discern and analyze the fundamental intersections of religion and social/political/cultural life through multiple lenses.”

“Specifically, a religiously literate person will possess:

1. A basic understanding of the history, central texts (where applicable), beliefs, practices and contemporary manifestations of several of the world’s religious traditions as they arose out of and continue to be shaped by particular social, historical and cultural contexts;

2. The ability to discern and explore the religious dimensions of political, social and cultural expressions across time and place.”

In other words, to love our neighbors, we must get to know our neighbors.

A

Interfaith Religious Literacy Resources