God Is Not One

"This book could well be the most highly readable, accurate, and up-to-date introduction to the world's major religions." - Harvey Cox, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, and author of The Future of Faith

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 in modern theology 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 eight major world religions like 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. A necessary book for anyone interested in the future of interfaith dialogue, readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong will find much to ponder in God is Not One.

In this essential work of religious studies, Prothero dismantles the myth of religious unity to reveal what truly defines each of the world's great spiritual traditions:

• A New Framework for Understanding: Go beyond superficial similarities and analyze each religion based on the unique problem it seeks to solve―from sin in Christianity to suffering in Buddhism.
• Why Religious Differences Matter: Understand why the stark distinctions in doctrine, ritual, and end goals between religions like Islam and Christianity are not minor details but are instead powerful, world-shaping forces.
• Comparative Religion in Action: Journey through the core beliefs and practices of eight global traditions, including not only major faiths like Judaism and Islam but also Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, and Daoism.
• A Challenge to Modern "Godthink" A powerful counterargument to the popular but misleading idea that all faiths are simply different paths up the same mountain, aimed squarely at readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong.

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 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 own peril, argues religion scholar Stephen Prothero, and it is time to replace naIve hopes of interreligious unity with deeper knowledge of religious differences.

In "Religious Literacy," Prothero demonstrated how little Americans know about their own religious traditions and why the world's religions should be taught in public schools. Now, in "God Is Not One," Prothero provides readers with this much-needed content about each of the eight great religions. 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 to 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.