“No fair-minded scholar wants to perpetuate stereotypes,” Prothero writes, '…ut it is time to grow out of the reflex to defend. Sameness is admittedly seductive, he says, but the blithe belief that all religions share the same values and want the same things is foolishly romantic and unreal. Yet, Prothero argues that these feel-good, all-inclusive notions of religious parity have imperiled the world by ignoring the clashes among religions, and the idiosyncratic ways in which all religions, in fact, differ. And the world is surely safer when rivals aren’t fuming and proclaiming, “Our God is greater than yours.” Īfter all, religions seek similar truths they just have different ways of getting there. The author in fact writes that Islamic art has avoided images of Allah, not Muhammad. ' God Is Not One” review: A review of Stephen Prothero’s book “God Is Not One” in the June 9 Calendar section stated that Prothero says Islamic art has avoided images of Muhammad and has been limited to calligraphy and the Arabic letters of the Koran. This is particularly true when it comes to religion.Īs Stephen Prothero, religion scholar and author of the bestseller “Religious Literacy,” reminds us in his latest book, “God Is Not One,” all the preaching about tolerance for other religions is necessary because most people believe in God, and social peace is best achieved when all religions are regarded as essentially the same. In an age in which it has become fashionable to demonize those with whom we disagree, there is still a contradictory impulse to remain politically correct.

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