Teaching the Bible in Public School

Stanley Fish had an interesting article, "Religion Without Truth," in the 3/31/07 issue of the New York Times. He referenced the recent article in Time, "The Case for Teaching the Bible," by David Van Biema about which I blogged. Those that want to conduct the academic study of religion like B.U. professor Stephen Prothero lament the dearth of biblical knowledge that people have which affects the ability to understand a good deal of great literature which references or alludes to the Bible and Bible stories.

Fish's point is that you really can't bracket truth claims which Prothero advocates in the teaching of the Bible. Fish argues that "The truth claims of a religion--at least of religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam--are not incidental to its identity; they are its identity." Bracketing religious truth claims are, according to Fish, like "studying the justice system and bracketing questions of justice."

While Fish believes that it is possible--although difficult--to bracket truth claims in teaching the Bible in an academic setting, he concludes his article with the question, "But if you're going to cut the heart out of something, why teach it at all?

What do you think about Fish's concerns?