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In God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World, New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and religion scholar Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. Delving into the different problems and solutions that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, Daoism and Atheism strive to combat, God is Not One is an indispensable guide to the questions human beings have asked for millennia-and to the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. Readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong will find much to ponder in God is Not One.… (more)
This is a tough review, because I agree with the basic idea of what Prothero is writing, that we should learn and acknowledge the different ideas and practices of religious people around the world. But he too often sets up a strawman in defense of his argument, and then tears that down instead of really engaging with the ideas he is discussing. An example: "The New Atheists see all religions (except their own “anti-religious religion”) as the same idiocy, the same poison. The perennial philosophers see all religions as the same truth, the same compassion. What both camps fail to see is religious diversity." Perennial philosophers, in my understanding, believe that religions point to the same truth, not that they are the same truth. And his attack on atheists in the final chapter was just strange, frankly.
He also creates these strange silos within American Christianity, separating Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism in ways that just don't really travel well outside of a classroom or a textbook, because the practices of these groups are much more fluid than his rigid definitions.
Finally, he uses subjective words when perhaps he should tone it down a bit. "One of the lies of the so-called New Atheists...." and "Evangelicals are both more friendly to modernity and less shrill [than Fundamentalists]." It feels like he has an axe or two to grind, and it makes me not trust his interpretations of the religions he discusses. ( )
If you are looking for a book that gives an honest review of Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba, Judaism, Daoism/Taoism, and Atheism this is your book. I was assigned this as a textbook in a religion class and was bowled over. ( )
Human goals are many, not all of them commensurable, and in perpetual rivalry with one another.
—Isaiah Berlin
Dedication
To my students
First words
At least since the first petals of the counterculture bloomed across Europe and the United States in the 1960s, it has been fashionable to affirm that all religions are beautiful and all are true.
Quotations
Last words
Far more powerful is the reminder that any genuine belief in what we call God should humble us, remind us that, if there really is a god or goddess worthy of the name, He, She or It must surely know more than we do about the things that matter most. This much, at least, is heard across the great religions.
In God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World, New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and religion scholar Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. Delving into the different problems and solutions that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, Daoism and Atheism strive to combat, God is Not One is an indispensable guide to the questions human beings have asked for millennia-and to the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. Readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong will find much to ponder in God is Not One.
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At the dawn of the twenty-first century, dizzying scientific and technological advancements, interconnected globalized economies, and even the so-called New Atheists have done nothing to change one thing: our world remains furiously religious. For good and for evil, religion is the single greatest influence in the world. We accept it as self-evident that competing economic systems (capitalist or communist) or clashing political parties (Republican or Democratic) propose very different solutions to our planet's problems. So why do we pretend that the world's religious traditions are different paths to the same God? We blur the sharp distinctions between religions at our peril, argues religion scholar Stephen Prothero, and it is time to replace naive hopes of interreligious unity with a deeper knowledge of religious differences.
To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem. For example:
--Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission
--Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation
--Confucianism: the problem is chaos / the solution is social order
--Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening
--Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is return to God
Prothero reveals each of these traditions on its own terms to create an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to better understand the big questions human beings have asked for millennia--and the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. A bold polemical response to a generation of misguided scholarship, God is Not One creates a new context for understanding religion in the twenty-first century and disproves the assumptions most of us make about the way the world's religions work. [adapted from jacket]
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He also creates these strange silos within American Christianity, separating Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism in ways that just don't really travel well outside of a classroom or a textbook, because the practices of these groups are much more fluid than his rigid definitions.
Finally, he uses subjective words when perhaps he should tone it down a bit. "One of the lies of the so-called New Atheists...." and "Evangelicals are both more friendly to modernity and less shrill [than Fundamentalists]." It feels like he has an axe or two to grind, and it makes me not trust his interpretations of the religions he discusses. (