A Critical Review of
God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World by Stephen Prothero
Stephen Prothero’s God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World is a brilliantly written and beautifully organized journey through some of the world’s most powerful religious traditions. Out from HarperOne in 2010, God is Not One directly addresses the difficult issue of religious pluralism, seeking to inform a wider audience of religion’s undeniable differences and particularities, countering today’s default assumption of universal sameness.
The Author
Stephen Prothero is a critically acclaimed American religion scholar and author. A native of Massachusetts, Prothero received his B.A. in American Studies from Yale and his Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard. He’s authored numerous bestselling and scholarly books about religion in America. He has a knack for making intricate religious themes digestible for a general audience. Outside of his scholarship, Prothero has been a professor of religion at Boston University and an in-demand media commentator on religious issues.
Overview and Structure
The point of God Is Not One is not simply that religions differ, but that they differ in essence. Prothero organizes the book by eight of the world’s major religions: Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba Religion, Judaism, and Daoism. Each chapter focuses on one of these religions, with Prothero describing the history, beliefs, practices, and distinctive problems of each. He then concludes with a short discussion of atheism as the way of reason.
Analytical Strengths
One of the book’s great strengths is Prothero’s talent for reducing religion to easily digestible prose without reducing it to shallow simplicities. This renders the book both accessible to the lay reader and valuable for those more advanced in religious studies, seeking a comparative perspective.
Prothero’s unwavering commitment to emphasizing difference rather than similarity between religions is a valuable antidote to fashionable ideas about the convergence of religion. By concretizing the “problem” each religion seeks to solve and its “solution,” he manages to render each tradition’s narrative both sharp and compelling. To illustrate, among the details Prothero shares about Christianity is that the key problem is sin, and the solution is salvation through Jesus Christ. In contrast with Buddhism, the problem is suffering, and the solution is enlightenment.
Further, Prothero employs a range of illuminating examples and anecdotes — which breathe life into the lived experiences of believers — giving you not just a theoretical pulse on each religion but also a window into how belief and practice play out in the real world. His colorful depictions of temples, icons, and ceremonies enrich textual exegesis.
Critical Observations
For all its strengths, God is Not One is not without its shortcomings. Although Prothero’s emphasis on difference offers a much-needed counterweight to syncretistic tendencies, at times it veers toward an overstating of difference that overlooks legitimate common ethical and moral ground.
And, of course, the scope of God is Not One prohibits a deep dive into any one tradition. A few readers might consider the handling of each religion relatively light, particularly in faiths such as the Yoruba Religion, which, though important, could use a bit more depth or historical context. This short shrift might frustrate the targeted religious reader, but such is the inevitable caveat with any comparative endeavor.
Also, when helpful, Prothero’s problem/solution framework sometimes feels reductive. Pundits would counter that the intricate and mutative nature of religion cannot necessarily be reduced to a tidy binary.
Conclusion
God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World provides a stimulating introduction to the world’s major religions. Stephen Prothero’s invitation to acknowledge the differences within this variety of belief systems is a necessary antidote in an era where reductive equivalencies are popular. Although it sometimes suffers from a lack of depth, given its ambitious scope, the book succeeds in its primary goal of broadening our appreciation for and sparking reflection on the impact of religion on humanity. A book like this remains a valuable guide for those seeking to navigate our ongoing public debate about religion.
