God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter by Stephen Prothero (PDF)

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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.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I read this for a collage class. 90% of this book is very well written, well researched and well thought out. Every religion is given it’s time to be understood and respected. The talks about the positive and negative aspects of many religions in a fair way. The only problem is the last chapter on atheism. What the heck happened? After 300 pages of a fair and balanced look into many religions you get a 10 pages of vile rhetoric about atheism. He doesn’t give any ground to atheists. He doesn’t give them the same respect he gave the other religions, he considers atheism a religion. Those 10 pages destroy this book. Do not use this as text book

⭐As mentored by Huston Smith from a young age, I felt it was time to look again. I was in high school in the second half of the 1950’s and Huston was teaching at Washington University (an early period in his illustrious life’s work). His passing from this life (age 92) which he loved has not diminished my admiration or finding knowledge in his words and writings. His life was full of light and it enriched his positive view that he shared with others; but he was not unaware of the darker side that historically existed but never clouded his belief that he should focus on the common good of all the world’s religions. This book lays bare the major problems inherent in following Islam, Christianity, Judaism — the three major “Abrahamic” faiths, As well, there is an analysis of the inherent problem of suffering taught by The Buddha. Less you think this book is totally negative, the author shares the solution to each so that followers may seek growth in their own spiritual life’s Journey.

⭐The single most insidious modern assumption about religion is probably the conjecture that they’re all identical, that all lead equally to salvation. This supposition confounds secularists, who don’t bother separating conflicting claims, and also religious people, especially Christians who want to resist their religion’s universalist assertions. But as Boston University religious historian Stephen Prothero writes, all religions can’t possibly lead everyone equally to salvation, since salvation is a uniquely Christian claim. All religions aren’t interchangeable.Contra this feel-good globalism, Prothero posits a need for familiarity with humanity’s many religions. Toward that end, he conducts overall looks at the eight religions he considers most influential in today’s international milieu. (Remember, it’s Prothero’s eight.) The three Abrahamic religions, the four most widespread “Eastern” religions, and the Yoruba tradition, which became global owing to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. These eight religions, in distinct ways, exert diverse pressures on politics, economics, and lifestyles daily.Many outsiders often assume certain transcendent claims describe all religions. Not so, says Prothero. Many precepts absolutely necessary to Christianity, like God or an afterlife, don’t exist in other religions. Some religions, like Confucianism, are entirely this-worldly, while others require some separation from this world, like Buddhism and Daoism. And even seemingly unitary religions like Judaism disagree wildly on important points: not all Jews agree on an afterlife, or even God’s literal or symbolic existence.Prothero isn’t a theorist. But he postulates a simple heuristic for understanding how religions work: they identify a problem, offer a solution, construct a path to achieve that solution, and offer human or superhuman exemplars of how to follow that path. This theory isn’t airtight—it could apply to the Marine Corps, for instance—but he makes a persuasive case that, to understand various religions’ incompatible claims, we must see them on their own terms.This text isn’t simple reading. Prothero, a serious scholar, cites many sources, offers occasionally incompatible evidence, and drops so many names, I recommend taking notes. However, if you hope to understand religion as a humane phenomenon, he provides plain-English introductions to world religions which often aren’t explained in ordinary language. And he includes enough source notes to continue self-guided beyond the introductory level. He raises more questions than he answers, but they’re good, important questions.

⭐A quick guide to eight of the major world religions which focuses on the key differences in the worldview of the various religions. While none of the sections are comprehensive, I felt like I got truly new information about African traditions and their influence on fringe religious movements in the Americas. While basic, in our age of religious and cultural illiteracy, this is a good introductory take on comparative religion that does not search for facts that make world religions seem ethically homogenous. That ecumenicism may make sense to encourage religious tolerance, but it is in the differences between religions that the context for world cultures starts to be made clear.

⭐I learned a lot from reading this book, especially about the Yoruba religion, of which I had never heard. With some one hundred million adherents, more people who write about religions should be writing about it. More discounting of things African? This book also left a powerful impression on me regarding the fact that millions and millions of people around the world believe passionately in very different gods/god/no-gods. I think that true believers of any sort would find this book dangerous because it speaks eloquently of many truths rather than one. God may not be one, but the need to believe seems to be.

⭐The author of the book did not really make his point, unless it was to name call atheist’s beliefs, he certainly did not establish any valid reason to believe that any god exists, and detracted from the one God, if there is such a thing, Very poor logic, almost convinced me to be an atheist. but then again that would require me to ignore the premise on which he started his book.

⭐As a Jew whose entire world has been centered on “God IS ONE” it was mind-blowing to read about all these different perspectives from different religions. I still believe in the unity of God but great essay!

⭐A good book but very thick so hard to read all in one go. I have taken to reading just the sections I want at the time I need to and going from there.

⭐I find this book to be dripping with subjectivity and cynicism, certainly NOT the objective analysis that I expected to find in a scholarly review.Any potential buyer would be wise to at least compare it to other world religions reviews.There have been similar comments that were published on Amazon by others.Disappointing indeed.

⭐The book begins in an interesting way and has a deep pull factor; it’s readable (I certainly finished it …) The linguistics and philosophical issues that arise from a simple use of ‘gog’ are profound, BUT be warned:a. It’s written by someone who is clearly more drawn towards straightforward comparative religion which itself is not a deep criticism, but means that the book lacks depth on a theoretical level. Even as a book on comparative religions it’s actually quite poor – it says nothing about different religions and their relationships to sex, money, economics, eating, dressing, womens issues, individual freedoms, etc. There is actually a good reason why he doesn’t go into these deatils and that’s because it means opening up a hornet’s nest of controversy that this author is uncomfortable with … ;b. He is not very objective – it’s written from a very conservative agenda of only ever saying nice things to religion which gets a little tiresome;c. His shocking treatment of ‘new athies’ shows his biased sensibilities. After happily concluding the ‘new atheism’ is indeed a religion, he then goes on to treat without any of the respect and consideration he gives to the other religions – sure new athiests have valid concerns, issues and experiences too? Why are they never probed and empathised with?Is you want a book on comparative religion there’s much better out there than this … If you want a debate about the word ‘god’ where we are all talking about the same thing, OR are under an illusion here and are actually talking about very different things, then wait for someone to has more analytic training and rigour.In brief, don’t bother.

⭐”God Is Not One” attempts to discuss the big differences between the world’s major religions. It is not a completely dispassionate review: the author clearly has his own opinions, although he is generally pretty good at not pushing them on the reader. Prothero tries to draw order from chaos by summarizing the basic philosophies of these religions by distilling from each a central problem and solution. For instance, Prothero claims that the central problem in Christianity is sin and the solution that it presents is salvation. The author asserts that these fundamental differences in perspective are crucially important, as they colour the worldview of each religion’s millions (or billions) of adherents. His critical thesis is that these religions are _not_ fundamentally the same, and he takes issue with the currently-popular message to the contrary.I refer to this book as a “primer” for good reason. Each religion is given only two or three dozen pages, much of which is devoted to basic precepts and cultural context. A great deal of detail is sacrificed in order to get to Prothero’s core points. Experienced readers of comparative religions texts might take issue with some of the author’s omissions and generalizations. In particular, as other reviewers have noted, the selection and explicit ordering of religions (whose chapters are arranged from most- to least-important) within the book might raise some eyebrows.Despite these points, I regard this book as a good starting point for new readers who may be unfamiliar with broad-strokes differences between the world’s major religions. Prothero celebrates the differences that he presents, and plainly seeks only to educate (and not offend) new readers. The text is both engaging and informative, and is not difficult to read in an evening or two. For many readers, this may be a better place to start than a staid textbook on religious studies.

⭐Für das Thema interessieren sich viele Menschen. Deshalb ist dieses aufschlussreiche Buch so wichtig. Es bringt in verständlicher Sprache umfassende Einblicke in die Ausrichtung und Ziele aller Hauptreligionen. Es rückt jeden Kuschelkurs, jede naive Einstellung zurecht und gibt Ausblicke, auf das was möglich ist und realistischer Weise erwartet werden kann – oder eben auch nicht.

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