There are a lot of good things to say about Stephen Prothero's God Is Not One. Anyone who follows Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, on Twitter knows of his broad knowledge of the major (and many minor) religions from his brilliant Religion140+- Twitter feature. He brings that comprehensive familiarity with many faiths to his book, which lays out a thesis that more closely resembles an act of journalism than academia.
According to Prothero, the worldview that each religion essentially amounts to a singular path up the same mountain, however appealing and unifying, is a dangerous sham. Religions are indeed quite different, he says, and if we do not sufficiently appreciate those divisions, we run the risk of overlooking potential sources of violence, terrorism, and worse.
But however appealing Prothero's chapters are on Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba religion, Daoism, and atheism, he gets so disgracefully sloppy in his chapter on Judaism that he invites the kind of cross-examination that comes so naturally to the cast of Law and Order. If the chapter on Judaism contains so many untruths, whether blatant or inadvertent, what are we to think of the other sections?
In a subsection titled "Life Cycle Rituals," Prothero announces that Jewish mourning rituals include "a seven-day period of sitting shiva in the home followed by burial, Kaddish prayers for the dead, and a one-year-anniversary remembrance called the yahrzeit." Even a quick glance at the Wikipedia page for "Shiva (Judaism)," not to be confused with Shiva the Hindu deity, reveals that shiva is observed after the burial, which must commence as close to the time of death as possible. Further, the remembrance yahrzeit comes not only on the one-year-anniversary but annually.
Some of Prothero's other mistakes are subtler. Contrasting Judaism with moksha, the Hindu notion of spiritual liberation, Prothero says the Jewish view of human purpose is "'to walk humbly with thy God' (Micah 6:8) and in so doing to repair the world (tikkun olam)." The footnote after the italicized phrase refers the reader to The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text: A New Translation, from which Prothero says he has derived the bulk of his quotations from the Tanakh, the Jewish name for what Christians call the Old Testament. The only problem is the concept of tikkun olam, which is a pop-Kabbalistic phrase, has no reference in the Jewish bible. The term, which can be found in the mission statements of most Jewish educational institutions and non-profits, is a very modern concept, which Prothero seems to confuse with the Micah quote, which is quite biblical.
An odd thread that continues throughout much of God Is Not One is the strained introduction of artificial differences to bolster the thesis that religions are very different. One such synthetic divergence is the description of Christianity as a religion of faith, while Judaism is one of action. Or, as Prothero says it, "Judaism differs dramatically from Christianity, where faith is paramount. Whereas Christians strive to keep faith, Jews strive to keep the commandments." How odd that Prothero cannot seem to remember that belief in God is the first of the Ten Commandments. Has he forgotten that Maimonides, the 12th-century Jewish philosopher and medical man, insisted upon Thirteen Principles of Faith, not action? Apparently not. Referring to the "Thirteen Principles" (and truncating "of Faith"), Prothero declares that Maimonides' principles were controversial "and not universally accepted," so "Judaism has always been more about practice than belief." But surely even Jewish practice, according to Prothero, has been hotly debated, so one can hardly call practice an essential part of Judaism according to Prothero's logic.
Judaism is "unusually cacophonous," according to Prothero. "If you ever stumble on a traditional yeshiva, a Jewish school for the study of sacred texts, the first thing you will notice is the noise," he says. "Students study in pairs in a large hall, often with wild gesticulations and hardly ever in hushed tones." Apparently, the students "read aloud from this story or that law, and they argue even louder about the meanings." Having spent 14 years at a yeshiva day school, a year at a yeshiva in Israel, and another three years at Yeshiva University, I can say with assurance that not all of the halls are large, and many of the chavrutot, or learning partnerships, are quite quiet and respectful. I am wholly confident that the rates of wild gesticulation amongst my peers at the yeshivot I attended were consistent with similar rates in gentile communities. The gesticulations make for good fodder for Woody Allen and the Coen brothers, no doubt, but they are the stuff of fiction at best, and perhaps even Orientalism.
Elsewhere, Prothero calls the 16th-century work the Shulchan Aruch (literally, "set table") the "most authoritative collection of halakha (Jewish 'law' or 'way') after the Talmud." One wonders why, if Prothero took this from Wikipedia, he did not quote in full: "Together with its commentaries, it is frequently considered the most authoritative compilation of halacha since the Mishneh Torah or even the Talmud itself." Maimonides' Mishneh Torah might well be more authoritative, and the same could be said for the 19th-century Aruch HaShulchan. Unfortunately, Prothero does not provide any footnote to back up his "authoritative" claim.
Although Prothero allows that the Jewish tales of exile and redemption, "with all due respect to Christian narratives of the Passion of Jesus and Hindu narratives of Rama and Sita," may be "the greatest story ever told" -- and one wonders how Prothero the scholar manages to define "great" in this regard -- he launches into a shopping list of the disproportionate achievements of Jews. Included are Jewish holdings of Supreme Court seats and CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, as well as their achievements in sports (Sandy Koufax), television ("Almost every major Hollywood studio was founded by Jews, as were NBC and CBS"), Broadway (Gershwin, Berlin, Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Mamet, Wasserstein), literature (Ginsberg, Dylan, Philip Roth) and architecture (Kahn, Gehry, Libeskind). The list of Jews in comedy is far too long to quote.
This sort of listing is sure to remind some of the claims of Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but one group of Jews is noticeably absent: Jewish fine artists. Prothero could have referred to Rothko, Lee Krasner, Soutine, Chagall, Ardon, Bakst, Lucian Freud, Newman, Weber, Morris Louis, Lissitzky, Liebermann, Levitan, several Soyers, Simeon Solomon, Shahn, Kitaj, Rivers, Kaufmann, Pissarro, Olitski, Oppenheim, Gottlieb (several of them), and Man Ray.
Prothero's omission might be part of a larger misconception. "Unlike Christians, [Jews] insist that God is not to be depicted in human form or worshipped in 'graven images,'" he says. Of course, one can find thousands of representative illustrations and paintings in Jewish sacred books and buildings. In the third-century synagogue at Dura-Europos, the divine hand is clearly visible in the depiction of Ezekiel's vision, and the signs of the Zodiac appear on the floor of the Byzantine Beit Alfa Synagogue.
It's unfortunate that Prothero's mistakes -- like declaring that Orthodox Jewish men won't walk more than four steps without a head covering, when plenty of Orthodox Jews remove their kippot when they are at work -- call his otherwise compelling theory into question. Religions are very different, and perhaps they can continue to play nicely (or at least civilly) at the same sandbox by realizing and embracing their differences in addition to their common ground. But just as it won't do to exaggerate the common ground, Prothero does not help his cause by overstating the differences. Nor is it helpful to approach the different faiths without investing sufficient energy into copyediting and fact-checking. There are more than enough untruths circulating about faith. Prothero had the chance to dispel some of those. Unfortunately, he only made it part way.
Follow Menachem Wecker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mwecker
Andrew Pessin: God Is Not One -- But Religions May Be
Uncle, father, neighbors all around the table. My Uncle sounded like Shecky Green, always answering with a question, ???? or asking a question with an answer.
I love it. YEEEE!
>>The reading,, “In the Beginning”
>>Uncle interjects; “Stop there!” “Beginning of what?” “If God is eternal,, there was no beginning???” “Oh,, The beginning for US?”
>>Uncle scratches his balding head,,, “Ok,, Move along or this will take all night.”
I love it,, GAWD I love it!
All the best
Knute
TR Knudtson
Not entirely accurate.
Tanakh is an acronym in hebrew. Only the "T" part refers to the torah. "N" is "neviim" or "prophets" and the "kh/ch" is for ktuvim or "writings" which covers the mishnah and gmorah.
If you are going to accuse others of "subtle mistakes", you should be more careful in your own writings.
The term "Old testament" may cover the entire tanakh as far as christians are concerned, but is that the common usage in judaism? My impression was that in judaism it generally only refers to the torah part of the tanakh.
Marked as favorite.
anyone who says this is taking his own opinion too far IMHO; kids should not have non-factual information fed to them. He does not say such knowledge is optional- as an elective- which makes me lump him right in there with the preachers here in Texas who think they have a right to go into public schools and 'instruct' the children
Anyone can believe anything & still be a Jew , 5 Million Jews are "Secular"..
Many Jews believe its takeover by the Ashkenazi Zionists has resulted in a positive way.
A Jewish Rabbi explains but nobody seems to listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RjnvQHWyLE
may i use it?
Who should I bet on to win the World Cup?
Will the Phillies generate enough run production tonight to adequate support Jamie Moyer?
Do you consider the Jewish religion one that teaches "Compassion for your fellow beings"?
How about Compassion for non Jews?
Here's a history lesson for you holy-heretic.
1948-- 6 Arab states and Palestinian Arabs attacked Palestinain Jews. They ere defeated.
1967- 3 Arab states alliance were defeated by Israel.
1973-- 2 Arab states attacked Israel and were defeated.
2010- No Arab state would even think to attack Israel.
Notice the regression. No? You should.
Is it because they suddenly became great humanitarians?
Of course not.
The antisemitism is just as strong now as it was during Nasser. BUT..... defeated, Egypt, Jordan are playing compassion game with Israel and vice versa.
This is Middle East. Don't try to rimpose your suburban-liberal fake morality into this region.
One has only to look at charitable works performed by Jews for thousands of examples
Are there Jews who aren't compassionate? Certainly, but no group should be measured by the worst among them
"A man's reach must always exceed his grasp" - Da Vinci
Very odd. Catholics in particular believe faith without actions is dead, whereas Protestants (following Luther) believe faith is all that is required for salvation.
Does he really just lump them both together under the banner of "Christianity"? If so, he's pretty intellectually lazy on that note alone.
You can't lump the wide variety of Protestants together as one any more than you can lump all varieties of Christianity together.
If you don't agree with that, you really shouldn't call yourself a Protestant. I admit there could be some minor sect out there that thinks it is Protestant, but has no idea about the meaning of the term.
Thanks again for clearing up such things. It is scary that books with so many errors can go through publishing. The amount of errors, as you pointed out, was just sloppy.
I like you name, love in Hebrew - מותק (סלנג) - אהבה
As to Daat - דעת (not Daas, which is Yiddish, not Hebrew), if you are seeking real knowledge, stay away from dealers of delusions.
In Israel's Bible-belt, as in any other, people lag behind in their knowledge of math, literature and science.
You can study the phone book and know it perfectly, you can study the Koran and know it perfectly, but this will not bring you any closer to getting a Nobel Prize.
Israeli Bible-Belt:
The (ultra-religious, Jewish) city of Bnei Brak at the bottom of matriculation table list with a meager 15% pass rate -
The northern Arab village of Fureidis passed with a pass rate of 75%
Jews rank high among winners of Nobel,
but why not Israelis?
SHULE KOPF Friday October 25, 2002.
That raises the question of why Israelis have not won Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine, areas in which Jews have traditionally excelled...
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/19170/edition_id/387/format/html/displaystory.html
In the East God Won - The high cost of organized ignorance.
Michael Pieracci, Ph.D., Religion Instructor: “Holy heretic’s insight is indeed profound.”
http://whengodwins.blogspot.com/
Your source is woefully outdated
By Motti Bassok, TheMarker
Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer on Monday called on the heads of the ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel to promote employment among Haredi men and women in order to minimize the prevalent poverty among them.
During a conference for the ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem, Fischer said that the low employment rate among the Haredi men and women was the root cause of for the high incidence of poverty, higher than any other sector in Israeli society, including the notoriously poor Arab sector.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1101543.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2009/07/haredi-poverty-rate-tops-60-234.html
In the East God Won - The high cost of organized ignorance.
Michael Pieracci, Ph.D., Religion Instructor: “Holy heretic’s insight is indeed profound.”
http://whengodwins.blogspot.com/
Typing error are not that important. Following the wrong God is a serious error my friend.
Thomas Jefferson also counseled “Full of Faith” people like you:
"IGNORANCE IS PREFERABLE TO ERROR, AND HE IS LESS REMOTE FROM THE TRUTH WHO BELIEVES NOTHING THAN HE WHO BELIEVES WHAT IS WRONG"
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0750.htm
Thomas Jefferson
And most important. Thomas Jefferson advised “Full of Faith” people like you::
"THERE IS MORE HONOR AND MAGNANIMITY IN CORRECTING, THAN PERSEVERING IN AN ERROR."
--Thomas Jefferson: Batture at New Orleans, 1812. ME 18:123
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff0750.htm
Does this not imply there is a right God?
The true complexities of a ripe fruit is in the savoring of it, thinking... as you chew ~
and as the juices flow in your consciousness.
Oh! You think, "This berry is so sweet today."
And yet tomorrow, a berry from the same vine may have some tartness to it.