Date of Award

Spring 4-28-2018

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Political Science and International Affairs

Department Chair or Program Director

Kramer, Jack

First Advisor

Lester, Emile

Second Advisor

Mathews, Mary Beth

Major or Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

Religious literacy is defined as a basic level of knowledge and understanding of major world religions and beliefs. Most of the literature on the subject agrees that students benefit from exposure to other religions, both civically and mentally. The Religious Freedom Institute of the Newseum has created a curriculum in order to bring nonpartisan religious education back into public schools with the goal of increasing tolerance for communities of different faiths. The curriculum, titled the Georgia 3Rs project, is being piloted in Georgia, a predominantly Christian evangelical state. In my thesis, I study the effectiveness of prior examples of religious literacy courses and offer suggestions on how to present current and future programs to better gain public support and approval.

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