GOD IS NOT ONE: THE EIGHT RIVAL RELIGIONS THAT RUN THE WORLD AND WHY

THEIR DIFFERENCES MATTER. By Stephen Prothero. New York: Harper Collins. 2010.
388 pp.

The religions of the world are different and the differences really matter. Furthermore, ignorance
of these differences and, even more, fear of talking about them is destructive. This is Stephen
Prothero’s thesis and it stands in contrast to earlier literature on world religions by authors such
as Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong who stressed similarities between world religions,
imagining them as different approaches to a single mountain. These portrayals may reflect the
optimism of another time, but Prothero, who is writing in the post 9/11 era, claims that engaging
the differences is the path to understanding and harmony. His stress on religious literacy in this
book and his earlier one, Religious Literacy, reflects the movement beyond secularization and
how one can plausibly argue today that religion matters because it is an independent variable that
influences other institutions and has both constructive and destructive effects.

Prothero devised a four-part approach for examining each of the religions he discusses. He
begins by first suggesting these religions have a common starting point; each begins with the
observation that “something is wrong with the world.” After he identifies the core problem at
center of a religious world view, he then discusses the solution it proposes and the goal it points
to; third he discusses the techniques it offers for moving from problem to solution, and finally he
identifies exemplars who serve as models for the pursuit of this particular religious path.
However, the diverse characteristics of the religions themselves sometimes make it challenging
to fit them into this schema.

Religions are constructed in ways that assign different levels of importance or non-importance to
beliefs, rituals and ethics. It is not the diverse content of beliefs and rituals that make religions
different, but their very structures. The heart of religious differences is the core problems they
identify. For example overcoming sin and seeking salvation is a Christian problem; only
Christians are looking for a savior. For Hindus the problem is samsara - wandering through
endless cycles of life, death and rebirth. They are seeking moksha – release – and they do this
through the practice of the yogas and puja.

In the book, Prothero presents and compares eight religions. Their placement in the text is
determined by his assessment of their influence in the world, from greatest to least. His first
criterion is contemporary impact, then the number of adherents, then historical significance.
Many religions are not mentioned in the text

He rates Islam as most influential and claims that it is the up and coming religion of the 21 st
century. Though at present it is numerically smaller than Christianity, it is growing faster.
Today one fifth of the world’s population is Muslim. It does not make a significant distinction
between public and private. It is a religion and a way of life oriented toward orthopraxy - right
action. Allah demands obedience. Islam means submission or surrender. The core problem it
confronts is self sufficiency and acting as if one is not dependent on God. The solution is
submission to God by prostrating in prayer. Mosque means “place of prostration.” Submission
leads to peace in this world and the next. Both Islam and Christianity place great stress on a life
beyond this world. In Islam the core practices are the five pillars. The central pillar is pure
monotheism; “there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is God’s messenger.” The supporting
pillars are prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Muhammad (570- 632 C.E.), the exemplar,
was both a charismatic and bureaucratic leader. Around age 40, while he was at prayer in a cave
outside Mecca, the angel Gabriel commanded him to “recite” which he did until shortly before
his death. The product of this recitation was the Quaran. It was never written down by
Muhammad but only by his disciples. It is only scripture in Arabic; translations are not
recognized as such. Its themes include life after death, remembrance of human dependence on
God and social justice.

A most controversial term, jihad (struggle) points to the internal struggle against self-sufficiency
and the external one against Islam’s enemies. Shariah means “right path” and is the form of law
adopted in Islamic countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Though a big tent
theologically, the most basic divisions are the Shia (15 percent) who thought succession to
Muhammad should be based on bloodline; they invested authority in a theocracy led by Imams.
The other division is the Sunni who separated religious and political power. There are other
variations in Islam as well. Progressives conduct mixed gender services while Sufis represent a
mystic tradition.

After Christianity, Prothero rates Confucianism as the third most influential religion. It is one of
China’s “Three teachings.” It amiably mixes and mingles with Daoism and Buddhism. It has
shaped Chinese political, economic and social thought, but it is not listed among its officially
recognized religions. It is considered a philosophy that intertwines ethics and ritual. For
Confucianism, the problem is the lack of order and harmony and the solution is character
building education. Techniques for moving away from the problem are to appropriately engage
the five mutual relationships (ruler/subject; parent/child; husband/wife; elder/younger;
friend/friend) and to practice the five virtues (human heartedness; justice; propriety; wisdom; and
faithfulness). Confucius is an exemplar of this path.

He discusses the remaining four religions in the following order. Buddhism identifies suffering
as the problem and nirvana as the solution pursued through the noble eightfold path of
meditation and chant and modeled by arhats bodhisattvas and lamas. Yoruba Religion of the
West African diaspora has survived because of its ability to take on the characteristics of
dominant religions in the cultures in which it is appears. To overcome the problem of
disconnection it seeks to flourish in the here and now by establishing ifa – reconnection. To do
this one seeks to get the orishas – akin to gods and superheroes - to intervene regarding love,
luck and work. Judaism seeks to return from the problem of exile - distance from God and our
true home- by telling the story and obeying the law. Finally, Daoism identifies convention as the
core problem. It is overcome by becoming natural, returning to natural rhythms and accepting
the inevitability of change. Laozi is the exemplar of this path. Prothero concludes with a brief
treatment of modern atheism, criticizing neo-atheists for treating all religions as it they were the
same. True to his method, Prothero does not treat sectors of atheism as if they were the same.

Written in an accessible style, this book is a starting point for discussions of world religions.
Prothero presents a useful, detailed description of each religion. His method is creative though
indeed it may be possible for scholars and practitioners to construct alternative renderings of a
particular religion’s core problems, solutions, techniques and exemplars. This method is also
useful as a tool to analyze religions not covered in this book. He treats religions in relation to
other social institutions and though religions are not the same, one can see that as organizations
they face some of the same challenges. This book is motivated, as was his earlier one, to
promote religious literacy for the good of the globe and I think he has been successful in this
endeavor.