About this title: The U.S. is one of the most religious places on Earth, but it is also a nation of shocking religious illiteracy. Religion scholar Prothero makes the provocative case that to remedy this problem, religion should be taught in the public schools.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very good. Appearance of only slight previous use. Cover and binding show a little wear. All pages are undamaged with potentially only a few, small markings. Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read. Recycle and Reuse! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperOne
Date Published: 2007-03-01
ISBN-13:9780060846701ISBN:0060846704
Description: Very Good. Very good hardcover in dj. Pages and covers are clean and crisp; text contains light-moderate underlining/marking.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Free Delivery Confirmation! Ships same or next business day! read more
Description: Good. Used-Good Hardcover. First Printing May contain highlighting/underlining/notes/etc. May have used stickers on cover. Ships same or next day. Expedited shipping takes 2-3 business days; standard shipping takes 4-14 business days. read more
Description: New. 0060846704 Dust Jacket has very little shelf wear. No remainder mark. Pages are clean with no markings, no creases and no dog-ears. Hardcover. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HarperOne
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780739487679ISBN:0739487671
Description: Very Good. This book is in very good condition. No highlighted portions or handwritten notes. This item was a donation to Goodwill of Greater Washington. Thank you for your purchase. Your order will be processed within 2 business days of receipt. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HarperOne
Date Published: 3/11/2008
ISBN-13:9780060859527ISBN:0060859520
Description: Fine. 0060859520 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060846701ISBN:0060846704
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780060846701ISBN:0060846704
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperOne
Date Published: 2007-03-01
ISBN-13:9780060846701ISBN:0060846704
Description: Good. All books in Acceptable-Good condition. Books may NOT include Online Access Codes (InfoTrac, MyEconLab). Books MAY contain highliting/bent pages. We ship M-F. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"My 3 star rating might be deceptive. Though this book was decent, it could be a tad misleading. The cover has various symbols from world religions and claims to provide every American literacy in world religions. Rather, the book is mainly a history of the role religious knowledge has played in American history, tracing it's rise, fall, and what can be done for a redemption. The last chapter is a kind of dictionary offering short blurbs on some popular religious concepts one might run into in daily civic life. Some might think this book functions as a kind of world religions 101 course, but it doesn't. More like a history of religious knowledge in America topped off with enough information about popular religious themes to get the uninitiated in trouble.
As far as Prothero's (chair of Religious department at Boston University) take on the role and history of religion in America, it was a breath of fresh air. I'm not sure how "religious" Prothero is (he claims to be a nominal church attendee at best, and is mainly concerned about religious education rather than any kind of preaching or proselytizing), but he seems to think in the vein of an Os Guinness. He takes issue with both the secular left (who want a naked public square) and the religious right (who want a sacred public square). The subtleness and awkwardness of the American Experiment seems to be best expressed by this approach rather than those who think America's founding can be defined absolutely as religious or secular.
I also found Prothero's lament of the dumbing down of religious literacy in America, of the move towards myriad zeals without knowledge, spot on. He rightly links the non-denominationalism and desire for unity amongst early evangelicals as paving the way for religious illiteracy. So ironically, Christians are to blame for the dumbing down of the American public with regards to religious knowledge. As nonsectarianism became popular, there was s shift towards morality. This was because it was assumed that "within the domain of ethics . . . Protestants of different denominations could agree. As it became imperative to get along . . . theology started giving ground to morality." And this begets what we see today. Today is "an era in which morality is the essence of religion and the term Christian connotes opposition to abortion and gay marriage rather than faith in the incarnation and redemption--in an era in which having a relationship with Jesus is more important that knowing what he actually did, in which believing in the Bible matters more than knowing what the Bible has to say. More than the forces of secularism, it was this sort of religion that would do religious literacy in."
Amen. If the book was marketed a bit different, it's this kind of talk that would have got it 5 stars from me. So, though much of the content is quite good, if you're looking for a well-rounded course in world religions, or even Christian theology, don't look here. There's a lot more to this book too, like when Prothero lays out his ideas for how we can regain literacy, but I'll leave his views for those interested in what Prothero's book actually does--rather than what it purports to do--to find out. Suffice to say, Prothero offers a careful and balanced approach to teaching about religion on the Public Square. He views it has preparation for involvement in civic society. Involvement in a world where religion matters. He steers around the rhetoric of both the secular left and religious right. He won't make them happy. But if you tire of the culture warring on behalf of both sides, than you will like Prothero's proposals.
Hopefully this was enough information to help you to make an informed choice on whether this book is for you."
"Prothero gives a quiz about world religions to his new students, which he reproduces in this book. The point is not to humiliate people who think Joan of Arc is Noah's wife or that Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple. Instead, he wants to prove how little that just about everyone knows about other people's religions and about their own religion (if they are religious). Religion and religious history figure into many important political issues today, from terrorism to freedom of speech to freedom of worship.
It was interesting to find out how American religion became more emotional and personal and less doctrinal. Part of it had to do with mainstream Protestants working together against slavery, for women suffrage, for Prohibition and (sadly) against Catholics. To work together, the groups had to downplay the many significant differences in their beliefs, and as a result, many regular churchgoers have no idea what those beliefs are.
I agree with Greg that this book doesn't fare well as an audiobook. You really need to be able to switch back and forth."
"The front cover of this book entices you with the symbols of many world religions, making you think you may get a comparative-religion primer. What you really get is a treatise on how the U.S. has gone on a slide since the Protestant Bible was removed from the schools, and offers as a solution its reintroduction as a central part of the curriculum, with the smallest of fig leaves thrown to other world religions.
You won't learn much of substance about non-Christian religions from this book. It's literally a book that preaches to the choir. I had been hoping for more. The appendix has short and often pithily unsatisfying explanations of major religious tenets and events, and here the author does include other religions in passing.
Why is Christmas on December 25, for instance, when the Bible doesn't mention this date? I would expect that the author would touch on this in his appendix entry on Christmas, but he doesn't.
Overall, there's much more selling and much less information in this book than I had hoped."
"His initial point--namely, that educated people need to be aware of religious ideas, concepts, figures, etc-- is interesting, but grows repetitive. Yes, it is true that there are over 1,300 Bibical references in the works of Shakespeare and certainly any discussion of Middle Eastern politics warrants an understanding of the differences between Sunni and Shiite traditions and beliefs, but this book is really more about the history of religious education than actually offering any. After the fun of his little quiz (Name the twleve apostles. Name the four noble truths of Buddhism.) and a superficial dictionary of terms that actaully makes up half of the book, I was left feeling let down."
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