How religion may affect educational attainment
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 720: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 4, 2022
How religion may affect educational attainment
Religion and education, two of humankind’s most ancient endeavors, have long had a
close relationship. Historians and social scientists have written about this relationship and
about how the two may influence each other.
This chapter presents a broad overview of scholarly research into the ways religion can
affect educational achievement. It is not an exhaustive survey of the academic literature, but
instead a brief summary of some explanations proposed to account for attainment differences
among religious groups. Religion is certainly not the only reason for this variance; many other
factors may play an equal or greater role, including economic, geographic, cultural factors and
political conditions within a country or region.
The chapter begins with an historical look at ways in which scholars suggest that various
religions have influenced education, especially the spread of literacy among laypeople. This
section also explores how historical patterns sometimes help explain contemporary patterns in
educational attainment. Next, this chapter considers hypotheses about how the cultural norms
and doctrines of a religious group may affect educational attainment. It concludes with a look at
some leading theories for the stark differences in educational attainment between Christians
and Muslims living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Looking to the past
Contemporary access to schooling – a solid pathway to educational attainment – depends
on a country’s educational infrastructure. In many instances, the foundations of that
infrastructure are based on facilities originally built by religious leaders and organizations to
promote learning and spread the faith.
In India, the most learned men (and sometimes women) of ancient times were residents
of Buddhist and Hindu monasteries. In the Middle East and Europe, Christian monks built
libraries and, in the days before printing presses, preserved important earlier writings produced
in Latin, Greek and Arabic. In many cases, these religious monasteries evolved into universities.
Other universities, particularly in the United States and Europe, were built by Christian
denominations to educate their clergy and lay followers. Most of these institutions have since
become secular in orientation, but their presence may help explain why populations in the U.S.
and Europe are highly educated.
Apart from their roles in creating educational infrastructure, religious groups were
foundational in fostering societal attitudes toward education.
Islam
There is considerable debate among scholars over the degree to which Islam has
encouraged or discouraged secular education over the centuries. Some experts note that the
first word of the Quran as it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad is “Iqra!” which means
“Read!” or “Recite!”; they say Muslims are urged to pursue knowledge in order to better
understand God’s revealed word. Early Muslims made innovative intellectual contributions in
such fields as mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine and poetry. They established
schools, often at mosques, known as katatib and madrasas.31 Islamic rulers built libraries and
educational complexes, such as Baghdad’s House of Wisdom and Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, to
nurture advanced scholarship. Under Muslim rule, southern Spain was a center of higher
learning, producing such figures as the renowned Muslim philosopher Averroes.32
But other scholars contend that these educational attainments, and the regard that
Muslims had for intellectual inquiry in realms outside religion, were gradually attenuated by a
complex mix of social and political events over several centuries. These events included foreign
invasions, first by the Mongols, who destroyed the House of Wisdom in 1258, and then by
Christians, who pushed Muslims out of Spain in 1492. Some scholars argue that the educational
decline began earlier, in the 11th and 12th centuries, and was rooted in institutional changes. In
particular, contends Harvard University Associate Professor of Economics Eric Chaney, the
decline was caused by an increase in the political power of religious leaders who prioritized
Islamic religious learning over scientific education.33 Their growing influence helped bring about
a crucial shift in the Islamic approach to learning: It became dominated by the idea that divine
revelation is superior to other types of knowledge, and that religious education should consist
of learning only what Islamic scholars had said and written in the past.34
In the view of some historians, this shift severely constricted intellectual inquiry in the
Muslim world as the natural sciences, critical questioning and art were downplayed.35 Education
became primarily the study of established, traditional religious and legal canons. This change
also tightened religious scholars’ control over the education of Muslims in Africa and the
Middle East – a hold that was not broken until colonial governments and Christian missionaries
introduced Western-style educational institutions.36
Some scholars argue that the decline in secular learning and the narrowing of intellectual
inquiry among Muslims have been exaggerated, or did not take place. Columbia University
history professor George Saliba writes: “In particular, the decline of Islamic science, which was
supposed to have been caused by the religious environment … does not seem to have taken
place in reality. On the contrary, if we only look at the surviving scientific documents, we can
clearly delineate a very flourishing activity in almost every scientific discipline” after the 12th
century.37
Nowadays, Islamic religious leaders and religious schools still have great influence on
education in some Muslim-majority countries, but they compete with government and private
schools offering secular topics.
Christianity
In the view of some scholars, the 16th-century Protestant Reformation was a driving force
for public education in Europe. Protestant reformers promoted literacy because of their
contention that everyone needed to read the Bible, which they viewed as the essential
authority on doctrinal matters. Driven by this theological conviction, religious leaders urged the
building of schools and the translation of the Bible into local languages – and Reformation
leader Martin Luther set the example by translating the Bible into German.
Some scholars, however, argue that the “Second Reformation” of the German Pietist
movement in the 17th and 18th centuries was even more influential in promoting literacy.
Historians Richard L. Gawthrop of Franklin College and the late Gerald Strauss of Indiana
University note that in addition to stressing the need for personal Bible reading, the Pietists
persuaded German authorities to mandate Bible reading as “the chief instrument of religious
instruction in primary schools, [which was] a powerful impetus to the spread of mass literacy.”38
In more recent times, religion was a prime motivator in establishing U.S. schools run by
faith groups – including Quakers, Protestants and Catholics – that educated generations of
immigrant families.39
Historically, however, Christianity and science often have come into conflict with each
other, as illustrated by the 17th century clash between astronomer Galileo Galilei and the
Roman Catholic Church, as well as the condemnation by prominent religious leaders of Charles
Darwin’s 1859 theory of human evolution. The Scopes Monkey trial in 1925 further highlighted
the rift between science and some branches of Christianity over the theory of evolution, a
contentious relationship that endures even today.40
In sub-Saharan Africa, meanwhile, scholars describe how religious missionaries during
colonial times were the prime movers in constructing educational facilities and influencing local
attitudes toward education. These missionary activities, the scholars conclude, have had a long-
lasting positive impact on access to schooling and educational attainment levels in the region.
Research by Baylor University sociologist Robert D. Woodberry, for instance, suggests
that Protestant missionaries in Africa “had a unique role in spreading mass education” because
of the importance they placed on ordinary people’s ability to read scripture. As a result, they
established schools to promote literacy wherever they went and translated the Bible into
indigenous languages.41
Harvard University economics professor Nathan Nunn, who contends that education was
“the main reward used by missionaries to lure Africans into the Christian sphere,” says that in
addition to establishing schools, “missionaries may have altered people’s views about the
importance of education.”42
Woodberry and Nunn conclude, however, that Protestant and Catholic missionaries had
differing results. Except where they were in direct competition with Protestant missionaries,
Catholic missionaries concentrated on educating African elites rather than the masses,
Woodberry observes. And Nunn notes that Protestant missionaries placed greater stress than
Catholics on educating women. As a result, Protestants had more long-term impact on the
education of sub-Saharan African women.43
Buddhism
Scholars of Buddhism note that Siddhartha Gautama, the religion’s founder, often is
called “teacher” because of his emphasis on “the miracle of instruction.” He considered
learning essential for attaining the Buddhist goal of enlightenment.44
“In many ways, Buddhism is particularly dedicated to education because unlike many
other religions it contends that a human being can attain his or her own enlightenment
(‘salvation’) without divine intervention,” writes Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at
Columbia College Chicago.
Buddhism is “also extremely empirical in its approach, suggesting that followers try the
experiment of dharma (i.e., Buddha’s Four Noble Truths) for themselves to see if it improves
their inner freedom,” Asma notes, adding: “Because the philosophy of Buddhism takes this
pragmatic approach favoring education and experiment, Buddhism has little to no formal
disagreement with science (as evidenced by the Dalai Lama’s ongoing collaboration with
neuroscientists).”
This theoretical openness to scientific knowledge, however, did not always play out at the
practical level within Buddhist communities, Asma contends. “Powerful Buddhist monasteries,
especially in China and Tibet, frequently resisted modernization (including science) for fear of
foreign influence and threats to entrenched Buddhist power structures,” he writes.45
Despite this tension between theory and practice, Buddhism has been a major influence
on the educational systems of many places, especially India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar,
Cambodia, Laos and Tibet. From around the fifth century onward, Buddhist monasteries
emerged as centers of education, not just for monks but also for laymen. Several monasteries
became so large and complex that they are considered prototypes of today’s universities. In
India, the most famous of these educational centers – Nalanda, in what is now Bihar state – is
said to have had 10,000 students from many different countries, and offered courses in what
then constituted philosophy, politics, economics, law, agriculture, astronomy, medicine and
literature.46
In Thailand, monastic schools located in Buddhist temples were the main source of
education for male children for many centuries, though they offered primarily religious
education. When the Thai government introduced Western-style, secular education around the
beginning of the 20th century, it used monastic schools as the vehicle for reaching the wider
population. As of the 1970s, “almost 50 per cent of Thailand’s primary schools [were] still
situated in Buddhist monasteries.”47 Similarly, in Japan the Buddhist monastic education
tradition was so influential that one 19th-century scholar of Japan wrote that “Buddhism was
the teacher under whose instruction the nation grew up.”48
Hinduism
For Hindus, education vanquishes a fundamental source of human suffering, which is
ignorance, says Anantanand Rambachan, a professor of religion at St. Olaf College. As a result,
education has been highly valued in Hinduism since the religion’s inception in ancient times.
Hindu scriptures urge adherents to seek knowledge through dialogue and questioning, and to
respect their teachers. “Learning is the foundational stage in the Hindu scheme of what
constitutes a good and a meaningful life,” Rambachan says. Since ignorance is regarded as a
source of human suffering, he adds, “the solution to the problem of ignorance is knowledge or
learning.”
The Hindu esteem for education is reflected in different ways. To start with, the most
authoritative Hindu scriptures are the Vedas, a word that comes from the Sanskrit root word
vd, which means knowledge, Rambachan says.
University of Florida religion professor Vasudha Narayanan says Hindus regard two types
of knowledge as necessary and worthwhile. The first, vidya, is everyday knowledge that equips
one to earn a decent and dignified life. The second, jnana, is knowledge or wisdom that brings
awareness of the divine. This is achieved by reading and meditating on Hindu scriptures.
Historically, the caste system in India was a huge barrier to the spread of mass literacy
and education. Formal education was reserved for elite populations. But in the seventh and
eighth centuries, the vernacular language of Tamil began to be used for religious devotion in
southern India, which led to greater access to all kinds of knowledge for a wider group of
people. “That is when you start having men and women of different castes composing poems of
praise for God, poems that are still recited in temple liturgy today,” Narayanan says.
Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, both secular and religious education came to be
seen by Hindus as a universal right, and it gradually began to be extended to all members of the
faith. Still, today, the vast majority of Hindus (98%) live in developing countries – mainly India,
Nepal and Bangladesh – that have struggled to raise educational standards in the face of
widespread poverty and expanding populations, which helps explain why Hindus have relatively
low educational attainment compared with other major religious groups.
Judaism
High levels of Jewish educational attainment may be rooted in ancient religious norms,
according to some recent scholarship. The Torah encourages parents to educate their children.
This prescription was not mandatory, however, until the first century.
Sometime around 65 C.E., Jewish high priest Joshua ben Gamla issued a religious decree
that every Jewish father should send his young sons to primary school to learn to read in order
to study the Torah. A few years later, in the year 70, the Roman army destroyed the Second
Temple following a Jewish revolt. Temple rituals had been a pillar of Jewish religious life. To
replace them, Jewish religious leaders emphasized the need for studying the Torah in
synagogues. They also gave increased importance to the earlier religious decree on educating
sons, making it a compulsory religious duty for all Jewish fathers. Over the next few centuries, a
formal school system attached to synagogues was established.
These developments signaled “a profound transformation” of Judaism, according to
economic historians Maristella Botticini of Bocconi University and Zvi Eckstein of the
Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. Judaism became, they write, “a religion whose main norm
required every Jewish man to read and to study the Torah in Hebrew and to send his sons from
the age of 6 or 7 to primary school or synagogue to learn to do so. … Throughout the first
millennium, no people other than the Jews had a norm requiring fathers to educate their
sons.”49
This religious obligation meant that male Jews, to a greater degree than their
contemporaries, were literate, which gave them an advantage in commerce and trade. Jewish
scholarship was enhanced in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the late sixth century, by the
emergence of Talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita in what is now Iraq. In the late
Middle Ages, centers of Jewish learning, including the study of science and medicine, emerged
in what is today northern Spain and southern France.
Until the early 19th century, however, most education of Jewish boys was primarily
religious. That began to change with the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement
initiated by East and Central European Jews.
This intellectual movement sought to blend secular humanism with the Jewish faith and
to encourage openness to secular scholarship among Jews. It revived Hebrew as a language of
poetry and literature, which reflected the reformers’ appreciation of their Jewish religious
heritage. At the same time, they were strong proponents of reforming Jewish education by
including secular subjects, such as European literature and the natural sciences. This
educational project often brought the reformists into conflict with more orthodox Jewish
religious leaders.50
Notes
Hefner, Robert W. and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds. 2007. “Schooling Islam: The
Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education.” ↩
For descriptions of the intellectual climate under early Islam, see Sardar, Ziauddin.
1993. “Paper, Printing and Compact Disks: The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture.”
Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A
Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science.” ↩
Chaney, Eric. 2016. “Religion and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science.” Harvard
University working paper. ↩
For descriptions of this intellectual shift and its consequences, see Sardar, Ziauddin.
1993. “Paper, Printing and Compact Disks: The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture.”
Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A
Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion and Science.” Also see Bulliet, Richard W. 1994.
“Islam, the View from the Edge.” Also see Tibi, Bassam. 1993. “The Worldview of Sunni Arab
Fundamentalists: Attitudes Toward Science and Technology.” In Marty, Martin E. and R. Scott
Appleby, eds. “Fundamentalisms and Society.” Also see Halstead, J. Mark. 2004. “An Islamic
Concept of Education.” Comparative Education. ↩
Chaney, Eric. 2016. “Religion and the Rise and Fall of Islamic Science.” Harvard
University working paper. Also see Sardar, Ziauddin. 1993. “Paper, Printing and Compact Disks:
The Making and Unmaking of Islamic Culture.” Media, Culture and Society. Also see Ahmad,
Imad-ad-Dean. 2006. “Signs in the Heavens: A Muslim Astronomer’s Perspective on Religion
and Science.” ↩
Hefner, Robert W. and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, eds. 2007. “Schooling Islam: The
Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education.” Hefner and Zaman write: “However
different their details, the educational transformations in the broader Muslim world all had one
thing in common. The ulama’s monopoly on education had been broken once and for all. … The
new educational pluralism brought intensified competition between supporters of general as
opposed to religious education, and fierce public debate over the place of Islam in an imagined
postcolonial community.” ↩
Saliba, George. 2007. “Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance.”
For other scholars who argue that the constrictions on intellectual innovation have been
exaggerated by historians, see Hourani, Albert. 1991. “A History of the Arab Peoples.” Also see
Hallaq, Wael B. 1984. “Was the Gate of Ijithad Closed?” International Journal of Middle East
Studies. ↩
