When she taught high school many moons ago, RC2 had a quiz she gave at the start of her "Understanding the Bible" class (freshman girls, respected middle & upper-middle-class Catholic parochial school). It challenged the kids to identify Biblical allusions in common English expressions or passages of literature. I always tried to make the point to the kids that knowing the Bible is not just a religious exercise; it's an exercise in being literate. Don't recall anyone doing well, although the evangelical kids certainly outclassed the cradle Catholics.
RC2 was reminded of this by the arrival in her mailbox today of this week's Weekly Standard, and this cover story on Bible illiteracy by David Gelerntner. Two thirds of kids in a recent study did not know that "the road to Damascus" was where St. Paul received his vision of Christ. Obviously, a kid who doesn't know that can't understand what is meant by the statement, "X was his road to Damascus." RC2 found at that time that even her senior students were very poor readers. Not that they couldn't literally read words on a page, but that they understood no references or allusions, so they couldn't engage the arguments in essays, etc. presented to them. Gelerntner makes one case for Bible-as-literature classes, even while recognizing that such classes are inherently unsatisfying to believers.
UPDATE: Apropos of Bible illiteracy, I am not one who puts stock (as people in my grammar school used to) in opening the Bible to a random verse to find something God wishes to tell you. But do you remember when Al Gore, intending to cite John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. . .) said John 16:3 instead? Which reads, "and they will do these things because they know not the Father or me?"
