Stephen Prothero

Prothero is Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University. His book American Jesus was named one of the best religion books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly and one of the year’s best nonfiction books by the Chicago Tribune. He writes for the New York Times Magazine, WallStreet Journal, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, and other publications. He lives in Boston.

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Politics and Religion

God is Not One

The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World-- and Why Their Differences Matter

Talking Points

The New York TImes bestselling author of Religious Literacy makes a fresh and provocative argument that, contrary to popular understanding, all religions are not simply different paths to the same end and why this matters greatly for us.

God Is Not One is a major book in the tradition of classics like Karen Armstrong’s A History of God and Jack Miles’s God: A Biography. Author and religion scholar Stephen Prothero’s controversial follow-up to his New York Times bestseller Religious Literacy debunks the popular myth that all religions are “different paths to the same God.” Contrary to what many popular religion writers (Wayne Dyer, Huston Smith) say, we actually disrespect the core of each religious tradition when we treat them as if they were indistinguishable. And we do so at our own peril.

Prothero provides an up-to-date look at the religions that continue to shape the spiritual lives of billions of people around the globe and in many cases determine their economic and political destinies. His polemical argument that the great religions are different paths up different mountains creates a new context for the study of religion in the 21st century and disproves the assumptions most of us make about the way the major religions work.

Description

God Is Not One shows how the world’s religions ask different questions, tackle different problems, and aim at different goals. In Religious Literacy, Prothero revealed how little Americans know about their own religions and why religious studies should be taught in public schools. Now, Prothero provides readers with this much-needed content about each of the major religions. He begins with Islam, which of all the great religions has had the greatest contemporary impact. He then moves on (in order of influence) to Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Yoruba religion, and Daoism. Along the way, he highlights the unique aspects of these religions and argues for their preservation as separate paths to different gods and different goals.

To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each tradition attempts to solve a different aspect of the human condition. 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 enlightenment
• Hinduism: the problem is the endless cycle of reincarnation / the solution is release
• Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is our return back to God and to our true home
When we gloss over these differences we fail to appreciate each religion on its own terms.

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