2017:11.16 - Benjamin Marcus - Do Religious Studies Belong in Public Education?

Benjamin P. Marcus is the Religious Literacy Specialist with the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, where he examines the intersection of education, religious literacy, and identity formation in the United States. Join Commonweal Executive Director Oren Slozberg in conversation with Ben on the subject of religious studies in the educational system. Benjamin P. Marcus has developed religious literacy programs for public schools, universities, U.S. government organizations, and private foundations, and he has delivered presentations on religion at universities and nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad. He is a contributing author in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Religion and American Education, where he writes about the importance of religious literacy education. In 2016, Marcus was awarded a grant from the Germanacos Foundation to write lesson plans about religion for public secondary schools and to convene a regional conference on religious literacy pedagogies with teachers, administrators, subject matter experts, and professional consultants. He earned an MTS at Harvard Divinity School and studied religion at the University of Cambridge and Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude.