#33: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't

I had high hopes for this book. I had heard good things about it and the liner notes make it sound like the author, Stephen Prothero, would not only tell about why we, as a country, don't know much about literacy and how that affects us as a nation, but then would address "both the core tenets of the world's major religions and the real differences among them. Complete with a dictionary of the key beliefs, characters and stories of Christianity, Islam, and other religions."

My high hopes were not met. Half of this book is Prothero explaining how we got to where we are (a nation of believers with no real knowledge of what it is we purport to believe). And the other half is his dictionary of religious information.

The first half was somewhat interesting (albeit long and repetitive), but I guess what I wanted was a Religion 101 kind of text, something that would actually tell me about the various religions of the world. His dictionary is a good reference, I suppose, but reading a dictionary alphabetized by character names and various religious tidbits, is not all that interesting to read, nor is it the best way to understand the various religions of the world.