Every College Student Should Read the Bible

At a recent conference, an idea that would have been unremarkable a century ago and now sounds almost transgressive was floated: that all college students should read the Bible. Not necessarily believe it. Not be catechized by it.

Simply read it. The proposal was received calmly. But on many campuses today, such a suggestion would quickly raise concerns about pluralism, secularism, and religious neutrality.

Those concerns, however well-intentioned, obscure a basic fact: Requiring students to read the Bible is not an act of religious instruction but a civic and educational judgment—one universities have largely abandoned to their detriment. For most of American history, biblical literacy was assumed among educated elites. Colleges did not treat the Bible as sacred scripture to be shielded f