Stephen Prothero

Stephen Prothero is the Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University and the author of numerous books, most recently "" and "American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Idol". He has commented on religion on dozens of National Public Radio programs and on television on CNN, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, MSNBC and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". A regular contributor to "The Wall Street Journal", he has also written for "The New York Times Magazine", "The New York Times Book Review", "Slate", Salon.com, "The Washington Post", the "Los Angeles Times", and "The Boston Globe".

Prothero has argued for mandatory public school Bible literacy courses (along the lines of the Bible Literacy Project's "The Bible and Its Influence"), along with mandatory courses on world religions. Prothero defines himself as a "confused Christian" [http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-03-07-teaching-religion-cover_N.htm Americans get an 'F' in religion] , USA Today, 2007-03-07] .

Prothero also currently teaches a religion course at Boston University called "Death and Immortality" which talks about death and immortality in multiple religions, i.e. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.

Books

* "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't" (2007, ISBN 0060846704)
* "A Nation of Religions: The Politics of Pluralism in Multireligious America" (2006, ISBN 080785770X)
* "American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon" (2003, ISBN 0374529566)
* "Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America" (2004, ISBN 0520236882)
* "The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott" (1996, ISBN 0520236882)

Television appearances

* March 19, 2007 - Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart [http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml]

External links

* [http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/buniverse/videos/view/?id=86 Stephen Prothero: On Religious Literacy] , Boston University video archive
* [http://www.stephenprothero.com StephenProthero.com] - Official site

Notes