A book review on religion and public schools

A review of The Role of Religion in 21st Century Public Schools that I wrote recently came out in Education Review.

You can access it here for free.

I wrote the review rather hastily — too hastily, in fact — but the rough edges of the prose contain many of the sentiments I have written about here at Vox Nova. In many ways, this review grew more out of my work here, than my academic work proper. The two are not mutually exclusive, to be sure, but it does offer some consolation to what is done around here — for me at least.

Here is a short excerpt that expresses my concerns about this book and the ways of thinking it exemplifies:

It is very easy to use outrageous, and all-too-true, examples such as young earth creationism, literalist and fundamentalist approaches to scriptural exegesis, and fire-and-brimstone eschatology as a way to advance this rather dualistic view of religion and, more seriously, the religious experiences of others. It is also easy to dismiss many other things this way. For instance, it is common to reject socialism by citing the crimes of Stalin. Many capitalists rely upon the popular and unimaginative red scare assumptions that the U.S. status quo takes at face value. But this is not true for the former (religion) anymore than it is for the latter (socialism). For those who experience socialism in socialist democracies or in theoretical critiques of capitalism these hasty, popular generalizations hold little to no value. The same is true for the “religious people”—(most) people who have religious beliefs of some kind and experiences—who are not fundamentalists.