Interviews
Before the live bn.com chat, Neil Asher Silberman agreed to answer some of our questions.Q:
What do you think is the current state of religion in the U.S.?
A:
Ninety percent of Americans believe in God and consider themselves religious in some way. But less than half attend church regularly. There has been a recent polarization of religious Americans along political lines, between conservative or reactionary and liberal or progressive, even within denominations. So the traditional mediating function of religion (churches and synagogues) has been attenuated. Language of belief has become testimonial, suggesting almost a conversion to one's belief.
Religion has always been a dynamic, active element in American society, but I don't think that it is often recognized. Most of us confuse religion with the biggest, most institutionalized religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and with the specific church buildings, rituals, and ceremonies connected with them. But religion is much more pervasive than that. From our study of the rise of Christianity, we have seen that religion is not so much a separate, well-defined sphere of life but is closely intertwined with all other facets of life: economics, politics, and community. So I'd have to say that although there are all kinds of religions and religious trends in America, we don't usually recognize them as such. New age beliefs, conspiracy theories, fascination with UFOs, astrophysics, and even modern disdain for traditional churches are all religions in their own right. And they are all expressions of various groups in America about how the universe "works."
Q:
Are American youth undereducated on religious history?
A:
Most are almost completely uneducated. The news media still often deal in stereotypes, particularly in connection with international relations, particularly in regard to the Middle East, and particularly in regard to what are called fundamentalist groups. Since for most of history until the modern West, religion was inseparable from other facets of life, such as politics and economics -- and it is still closely connected with people's life situation -- religious aspects of life should be included in courses on world history and U.S. history and in whatever courses schools offer on civics, current affairs, or contemporary issues. The new emphasis on diversity of cultures should help somewhat. Books such as The Message and the Kingdom should help place key religious figures such as Jesus and Paul in an intelligible historical and political context, in this case so that we can better understand how Christianity began.
Part of the problem, of course, is our constitutional separation of church and state that makes religious history a sensitive issue in public schools. To compound the problem, the various Sunday School versions of religious history that American children learn are very much centered on the history of the specific denomination that teaches it. What we really need is a way to discuss the history of all religions in a forum that is not "official" or dictated by a particular religious group. That's what we tried to do in The Message and the Kingdom, at least in the case of ancient Judaism and Christianity.
Q:
Have there been any recent archaeological revelations that have had a significant impact on what we currently believe?
A:
Archaeological discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and ancient Galilean villages make a tremendous difference in how we understand ancient Jewish society and how we imagine the Jesus movement as having developed.
Over the last 150 years, there have been countless discoveries in the area of modern Israel and Jordan that have shed a great deal of light on the historical reliability of the Bible -- ancient cities, inscriptions, ancient idols. I think that we now recognize that the Bible is a part of the larger culture of the Ancient Near East that extended from Egypt to Mesopotamia. With regard to the New Testament, there have been some particular finds linked to famous personalities: an inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate and the tomb of Joseph Caiaphas, the High Priest. No trace of any of the main characters -- Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, or the disciples -- has ever been found. But that is not to say that we haven't learned a great deal about their world. Our book describes many of the discoveries and tries to interpret their significance. We leave matters of faith, confirmed or questioned, to the reader to discover for himself or herself.
Q:
What is your opinion on prayer in the classroom?
A:
Besides the importance of the separation of church and state so that both can do their essential work in our society, it is important to preserve the freedom not to believe or practice religion in particular ways. We do not want to keep belief out but to keep the arena of the public schools open, so that they can be inclusive of all people in the society. Prayer, because somebody in particular would be guiding it, would only be divisive, not community building. What is needed is more education about religions that would lead to greater mutual understanding.
I think it's probably wise to maintain the separation of church and state to prevent any particular religion from dominating the others. America is dedicated to freedom and diversity, after all. That isn't to say that students should be discouraged from participating in religious activities in some form or identifying themselves as members of a certain group. It's rather that a way has got to be found to avoid religious coercion even by peer pressure in making certain students go along with the majority if they don't want to. The question of prayer in the classroom brings up the even more basic question of how we in America can preserve and promote religious diversity without dictating what any particular person should believe.
Q:
What are some of your favorite books and movies?
A:
Exodus, Amos, and Mark (in the Bible), and "Robin Hood." There are so many that it is difficult to pick out just a few. But I would have to say that in my work as a historian, trying to understand the role of myth and ideology in every society (not only ancient ones), I have been greatly influenced by Robert Graves's The White Goddess and Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces. For the role of economics and social structure, I highly recommend Eric Wolf's Europe and the People Without History, and almost everything by Eric Hobsbawm and Fernand Braudel.
My pick as all-time favorite movie may sound strange, but it is an easy one for me: "The Godfather" I and II. Though it's set in modern America and superficially deals with the Mafia, it is a classic saga of family and immigrant community trying desperately to survive in a new culture, and in the process destroying themselves.
