Religious Literacy: Zoology v. Worldview

Commenting on Stephen Prothero's essay, Rick suggests that the Catholic legal theory / university project(s) need to do more than combat religious illiteracy.  I agree that teaching about a religion cannot compare to teaching from within a religion, which is why I was nervous about Harvard's proposed religion curriculum.  If pursuing religious literacy results in a sort of religious zoology class in which these exotic religious animals are classified and summarized for purposes of a final exam, I think I'll pass.  It's the Bible-as-Literature phenomenon that many of us experienced as undergraduates: when there is no effort to enter into the tradition as a whole, rather than poking and prodding at bits and pieces of it, the effect can be unsettling for believers and a waste of time for unbelievers.  At the same time, if the only way to combat religious illiteracy is to help students embrace religious claims as truth claims, the project is a non-starter on most campuses.  The challenge, in my view, is to engage religion as a worldview, not as a loose collection of propositions to be dissected.  If we can get students inside the tradition -- if only for a moment -- they might be able to appreciate the perspective offered by the religious lens, even if they do not adopt it themselves.  I'm not entirely sure how to pull this off, but two steps seem essential: 1) having the class taught by someone who actually believes that the religion is true (or at least treats the religion as true in her life); and 2) avoiding the "survey of religions" courses, which are practically incapable of exploring a particular tradition to the extent necessary to allow the students to "get inside" the worldview.