Stephen Richard Prothero (; born November 13, 1960) is an American scholar of religion. He is a professor of religion at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

and the author of ten books on religion in the United States, including the ''New York Times'' bestseller ''Religious Literacy''. He has commented on religion on dozens of

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programs and on television on

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, ''

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''. He was the chief editorial consultant for the six-hour WGBH television series ''God in America'' and he has served as a consultant on American religious history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. A regular contributor to ''

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'', he has also written for ''

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''. Prothero has argued for mandatory public-school biblical literacy courses (along the lines of the Bible Literacy Project's ''

The Bible and Its Influence ''The Bible and Its Influence'' is a textbook first published in 2005 to facilitate teaching about the Bible in American public high schools. Its publishers, the Bible Literacy Project, say the textbook allows schools to study the Bible academical ...

''), along with mandatory courses on world religions. 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." On the matter of his own personal beliefs, Prothero describes himself as "religiously confused".

Books

* ''Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World's Religions'' (2020, ) * ''Why Liberals Win The Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections)'' (2016, ) * ''The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation'' (2012, ) * ''God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World—and Why Their Differences Matter'' (2010, ) * ''Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn't'' (2007, ) * ''A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America'' (2006, ) * ''American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon'' (2003, ) * ''Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America'' (2001, ) * ''Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History,'' co-edited with Thomas A. Tweed (1998, ) * ''The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott'' (1996, )

References

External links

* * American religion academics 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American religious writers Boston University faculty Living people Harvard University alumni Yale University alumni 1960 births American male non-fiction writers {{US-historian-stub