Stephen Prothero's book Religious Literacy is written for a popular audience and is humorous as well as a little frightening. His basic argument is that Americans are unbelievably ignorant about the religious traditions that exist within their borders. As he states, “Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant about religion” (1). Some may think that he is only talking about secular liberals. Not true, says Prothero: born-again Christians “do only moderately better than other Americans on surveys of religious literacy” (6). Prothero's fundamental argument is that to be an effective American (or global) citizen, especially these days, individuals need more than a basic knowledge of the religions in their midst. Prothero rightly notes that some teachers are not sure whether they are actually allowed to teach religion in the classroom, while others think that religion is too much of a hot-button issue to broach. As a result, students are increasingly ignorant not only about other faiths but also about what they themselves believe. For example, “ten percent of Americans believed that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife” and a student wrote that “the epistles were the wives of the apostles” (31, 32).

In the middle part of the book, Prothero astutely traces the history of religious ignorance in America. “Once upon a time, Americans were a people of the book” (59). The Bible was once the most popular book in the US and (Christian) religious literacy was intimately tied to literacy itself. Religion subsequently came to be seen as archaic and a product of premodernity. However, Prothero insists that especially in the post-9/11 world, Americans “are not equipped for citizenship” if they lack a fundamental knowledge of the world's religions (143). In the last chapter, Prothero advocates self-education about religion as well as the re-establishment of religion in public schools through initiatives like world-religions courses. The last eighty-four pages of the book provide a “Dictionary of Religious Literacy.” Such additions reinforce the fact that the book is surely written for a popular audience. Nevertheless, reading Prothero as he traces the history of religious ignorance with humor and care would be beneficial for religious-studies scholars as well as researchers in other disciplines. Also, with a substantial section of endnotes, the book will be useful for anyone interested in beginning serious study of religion in the United States.