Warning: I’m basing this off of personal experience, so I am most definitely not getting a complete picture.
I felt the need for a disclaimer in order for me to discuss religion.
One of the themes that Kaestle repeatedly goes back to in the spread of literacy, is the spread of Protestantism. He discusses how Protestantism’s push for people to read the Bible in their own language may account for the spread of literacy in some countries.
My family is Protestant, not just Protestant but Non-denominational Protestant. This just means that we refuse to align ourselves with a denomination, which leaves us to float around the (big C) Church and only agree with the very basis of Protestantism (define that as you will) rather than the details that denominations align themselves with.
The church that I became a Christian at was Willow Creek (a megachurch in the Chicago suburbs). At Willow, you can see the fads in Christianity come and go. One of the ones that was HUGE when I was in high school (and is still holding strong, but not as strong) was journaling. Every camp, every small group, every high school meeting after church, they encouraged us to journal about what we read in the Bible or what we talked about in church. Everything was centered around how you as an individual communicated with God, and the primary tool for that was literacy.
On the other hand, my roommate’s (and childhood best friend) family is Catholic. Occasionally, and especially around the time I was baptized (and when I dated her cousin, but that’s another story entirely), they would discuss religion with me. What I always had trouble with was how they would start their sentences:
“My priest was saying…”
“Last Sunday our priest said/read…”
“So your priest says…., right?”
For them, the primary way of being religious was through discussion of what the priest said and praying aloud. Meanwhile, my church was teaching me that written word was the best way of being religious. This isn’t to say that they did not do these things as well; I actually don’t know, because they didn’t ever talk about it. But it became clear when talking to them that we were operating in two different Discourses, and it was difficult to discuss religion with them without this emphasis on literacy being an issue.
