Keywords

religious literacy practices, young readers, gospel knowledge

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Although much of our gospel knowledge depends upon our interactions with scripture, misconceptions about reading it persist. One of the most enduring is the illusion of comprehension in which young readers mistakenly believe that reading words is sufficient to understand ideas.[1] To understand the important insights embedded in scripture and other complex texts, “reading must go considerably beyond the words alone.”[2] Words are sketches of ideas—not ideas themselves—so no text, however descriptive or eloquent, can include all the information necessary to understand its most compelling truths. For young readers to take full advantage of scripture and have the truths of the gospel “become clear, bright, and familiar,”[3] they must develop the tools to successfully navigate its pages. Religious literacy practices can be an important part of this process.[4] But what are religious literacy practices? What do they look like? How should we use them? Informed by relevant reading and religious literacies research, this article addresses these questions by identifying and explaining specific practices that can help young readers[5] gain access to the sacred and potentially transformative truths in scripture.