“Students who want to do serious study of Western civilization need to know the Bible,” says Barbara Newman, Northwestern University professor of English, Religion and Classics. “They need to know the Bible, even if they do not believe the Bible.”<\/p>\n
Harvard professor Robert Kiely, for one, agrees. In 2006, he participated in an academic survey of professors from many of America’s leading universities \u201d\u201d including Yale, Princeton, Brown, Rice, California-Berkeley and Stanford. The survey \u201d\u201d commissioned by the Bible Literacy Project, which promotes academic Bible study in public schools \u201d\u201d found an overwhelming consensus among top professors that incoming college students need to be well-versed in the stories, themes and words of the Bible.<\/p>\n
“If a student doesn’t know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth. One could go on and on and on,” Kiely told Concordia professor Marie Wachlin and her research team.<\/p>\n
“Knowledge of the Bible can be a key to unlocking other subjects. . . especially literature, art, music and social studies,” say Chuck Stetson, co-editor of the visually stunning high school textbook The Bible and Its Influence, and founder of the Bible Literacy Project.<\/p>\n