Dennis PragerFounder, PragerU · Founder of PragerU | NYT best-selling author

The Study of Religion and America

9 Dec 2025 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:20

In this commentary, Dennis Prager argues that the most effective way to study a religion is alongside its believers rather than solely through external scholarly analysis. He acknowledges the value of academic scholarship but emphasizes that genuine understanding comes from engaging with practitioners. Prager shares a personal anecdote about studying Buddhism under a devout teacher at the University of Leeds, which deepened his comprehension of the faith. He then extends this principle to American history, suggesting that studying America should similarly involve those who truly believe in its founding ideals, contrasting them with educators who merely convey factual knowledge without conviction. The piece challenges listeners to reconsider the role of belief in the study of both religion and national identity.

Chapters

It is by far best to study a religion with people who believe in that religion. There are people who are scholars of religions that they are not a part of, that they do not believe in, and their scholarship is worth reading. I have benefited from that. But religion is more than scholarship. As committed as I am to using reason to study religion, which is why my Bible commentary is titled The Rational Bible, but you really need to study it with people who believe in it. And that's, as I said, I've long believed that. I was, I studied under a man who believed in Buddhism in England my junior year in college, which was in England, the University of Leeds in England, and it was tremendously beneficial to my understanding of Buddhism. See, here is the way it works. You can study about a religion from someone who doesn't believe in it, and it's often worth it, but it's not the same as studying the religion. It's probably true for just about anything. I would rather study America from those who believe in the American founding ideals than those who simply know about them. By and large, not by and large, overwhelmingly, the people who teach American history teach about it but don't believe in it. I never thought of that till now. This is a spontaneous thought. Think about that, folks. If it's true for religion, why isn't it true for America?