ABSTRACT
The definitions of religion accumulated over the years have often been studied in terms of their reach and development. Such a variety allows to resort to some formulation and to regard religion as the ‘free assumption of a superior moral obligation by men and women immersed in a culture’. Basic illiteracy excluded the subordinate from reading and writing, and was used as a tool of public policy not to extend political participation and civil development. Religious illiteracy proceeds, on the contrary, from the rupture of an existential metric system that is typical of modernity a l’ancienne. The religious illiteracy that is revealed in the rupture between the self-secularized and ‘native’ agnostics has been reinforced by an equally important rupture within the knowledge and learning pertinent to the religious sphere. Reflecting on European religious illiteracy in its historical dimension means looking at a decisive problem for the future of European societies in the medium term.
