Stephen Prothero

I'm little disappointed with this book. Even though the title is Religious Literacy, it really just touch Christianity with brief description of other major religions. This book could be better titled Secularization of American Education. It did went into superb discussion about history of importance of Christianity in the United States public life. It also explains very well how American public education became secular (in short too many different sects couldn't agree on right doctrine to show more teach so religious instructions was removed all together.) I'm very skeptical of the author's proposal to re-introduce religious studies in public school. While it would be great for all educated citizen to know about Christian past of this country, In my view the challenge of creating a religious studies class without turn to proselytizing Christianity simply cannot be overcome. Even in the author's book we can already see the the bias toward Christianity, with wide coverage of different Christian sects while other religions received less coverage.

In short, this is not my favorite book, I probably won't read it again; it still contains a lot of fascinating history of religious education in United States. show less

Prothero's strength here is in his immense research. He cites hundreds of texts and quotes from many of them to support his fascinating thesis. The idea of how Jesus is viewed differently by different people is hardly a new idea. However, the depth he goes into to show the changes in people's perceptions of this most enigmatic figure. Jesus is feminine and masculine, he is a man and a woman, he is black and white and Jewish. He represents that which is good and so many people are trying to show more tap into that authority that he encapsulates. Prothero sets his book up very well and I found the chapters on protestant Christianity more interesting but all of it was insightful.

The struggle between Christ and culture has been fought for centuries. This book does an excellent job of showing that in America, culture is pulled Jesus in so many different directions that his authority is being deteriorated. The struggle over what Jesus really meant is ongoing and unfortunately means he meant everything.

Prothero's book teems with relevant citations and excellent research. I do wish he had refined his second half to reflect other areas. Mormonism is fascinating and its relationship to Jesus is very complex, however, where is Islam here? I understand he can't touch on everything but this just seems like such a blatant next step. I can understand that the relationship between Jesus and Islam in more than an American phenomenom. Still, I feel it deserves at least a mention. This is a very good book but it is just lacking a little in cohesiveness to take it beyond that. The first half was excellent and showed a very interesting movement within American religion. The chapter on Judaism left something to be desired but overall this book was still very good and insightful if perhaps lacking a cutting edge. show less

Despite being one of the most religious countries in the world, Americans know pitifully nothing about their religions. Not only do they not understand the tennents that they base their faith on, Americans don't know enough about other religions to understand world politics, enough about Christianity to understand political statements, our own history, or literary allusions (the entire time, I kept thinking about my college roommate who had to ask me (a Pagan) who Job is). He emphisizes, show more rightly, that the Supreme Court has, time and time again, reminded teachers that, while they cannot promote or preach religion, they are allowed to teach it.

While I agree completely with Prothero's dismaying statements about the woeful lack of understanding of the various religions out there, I don't view his solution as practical. Having a full year of religion education (one semester of the Bible, one semester of world religions) would be great, except for the fact that he glosses over the lack of time, funding, or ability to teach it properly. If religion is taught in classrooms, I am not afraid that all teachers will suddenly start prosletysing to students. I am afraid that all the interest and intrigue will be yanked out of religious study the same way it has been squeezed from the study of history in high schools (see Lies My Teacher Told Me)-or literature, or math, or evolution, or any other topic that is so facinating and important that gets the guts ripped out or gets taught to the lowest intellegence level in the classroom. show less

This book was a good read in that it presented a lot of good information about the religions of the world, but the only support he really seemed to offer for his overall conclusion is that in order to... believe all religions are "one" or "the same" one has to believe they are identical and somehow be completely ignorant of their specifics or differences. I also believe he left absolutely no room in his understanding for the differences of opinion within the faiths themselves, sticking show more solely to the text book answers, when all faith - even that within a specific religion - isn't so black and white.

I feel that looking at religion and its texts/doctrines too rigidly, too closed-mindedly, completely misses the point, and he's leaving out a lot of what's compatible by having such a rigid view of religion. The whole point of religion is how it moves people, how it inspires them, and in his rigid, literal way of looking at the faiths he leaves out the other, more metaphorical or mystical, possibilities and examples of the faiths.

So I personally side with Huston Smith, The Dalai Lama, and Karen Armstrong (all of whom I absolutely adore), and I believe that one can see a "same-ness" or "one-ness" in the world religions without being blind to their differences and without making the claim that they are all identical. I think it is important, also, to remember that this idea of "one-ness" isn't something that is new - we can find examples of it throughout history and within each faith tradition.... show less