Stephen Prothero is the New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and God Is Not One and a professor of religion at Boston University. His work has been featured on the cover of TIME magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, NPR, and other top national media outlets. Prothero's God is Not One compares eight of the 'greatest' religions in the world. Who made the cut? In descending order of greatness, the religions Prothero discusses are: Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba Religion, Judaism, and Daoism.
| Born | November 13, 1960 (age 60) Cooperstown, New York |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Religious studies scholar |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | |
| Subject | |
| Website | |
| stephenprothero.com | |
Stephen Richard Prothero (/ˈproʊðəroʊ/; born November 13, 1960) is an American scholar of religion. He is a professor of religion at Boston University[1] and the author of ten books on religion in the United States, including the New York Times bestsellerReligious Literacy.
He has commented on religion on dozens[citation needed] of National Public Radio programs and on television on CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, MSNBC, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report.[2] He was the chief editorial consultant for the six-hour WGBH television series God in America[3] and he has served as a consultant on American religious history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.[4] A regular contributor to USA Today, he has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, Salon, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal.
Prothero has argued for mandatory public-school biblical literacy courses (along the lines of the Bible Literacy Project's The Bible and Its Influence), along with mandatory courses on world religions.[5] He delivered the William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard University on November 18-20 on the topic: “The Work of Doing Nothing: Wandering as Practice and Play.'[6] On the matter of his own personal beliefs, Prothero describes himself as 'religiously confused'.[7][8]
Books[edit]
- Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World's Religions (2020, ISBN978-0-39-342204-7)
- Why Liberals Win The Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections) (2016, ISBN978-0-06-157129-9)
- The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation (2012, ISBN978-0-06-212343-5)
- God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter (2010, ISBN978-0-06-157127-5)
- Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn't (2007, ISBN0-06-084670-4)
- A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America (2006, ISBN0-8078-5770-X)
- American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (2003, ISBN0-374-52956-6)
- Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America (2001, ISBN0-520-23688-2)
- Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History, co-edited with Thomas A. Tweed (1998, ISBN978-0-19-511339-6)
- The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (1996, ISBN0-520-23688-2)
References[edit]
- ^https://web.archive.org/web/20060921010735/http://www.bu.edu/religion/faculty/bios/CV/prothero_cv.pdf
- ^'The Colbert Report Prothero'. The Colbert Report. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^'The Emily Rooney Show'. WGBH. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
- ^https://americanhistory.si.edu/events/symposium-religion-early-america
- ^Online Video Guide, 20120
- ^https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/11/stephen-r-prothero-to-deliver-noble-lectures/
- ^'After Words with Stephen Prothero'. C-SPAN. 3 May 2010. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
I think, I am definitely taoist on the weekends. I would say I am religiously confused, and I have friends who want to get me out of being religiously confused. They say you were seeking, you are searching. And I say, I like being religiously confused because as I have said, I think these religions are repositories of great questions and for me what intrigues is the questions and not so much the answers and I love living in the presence of these questions.
- ^Prothero, Stephen (2010). God is Not One. New York: HarperOne. p. 23. ISBN978-0-06-157127-5.
External links[edit]
- Official website
- Appearances on C-SPAN
