{"id":956,"date":"2007-03-05T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T21:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2007\/03\/from-vestry-to-buddhism-to-confusion.html"},"modified":"2007-03-05T21:31:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-05T21:31:00","slug":"from-vestry-to-buddhism-to-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/03\/from-vestry-to-buddhism-to-confusion.html","title":{"rendered":"From Vestry to Buddhism to Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This week’s Newsweek <\/a>details the spiritual journey of Boston University professor Steve Prothero, author of the new book “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–and Doesn’t.”<\/a> His beef is that while most Americans claim they are religious or spiritual, they actually know very little about the history of the views that they and others hold. I think you’ll find his odyssey quite fascinating. <\/p>\n

[Prothero] grew up on Cape Cod, Mass.; at 16, he was on the vestry of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, in Osterville, Mass. In college, he was “born again,” but not for long. “The imperative of really believing your friends were wrong, and trying to convert them never made sense to me,” he says. Post-college, he flirted with law school, politics and Buddhism until he found himself in graduate school at Harvard in religious history. There, he came to the crushing realization that as an American Christian he could never be a proper Buddhist, and so he returned to the mainline church. Today he defines himself as a “confused Christian.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a link to Prothero’s blog<\/a> where he seems to be covering religion and politics, interfaith households, and other intriguing topics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week’s Newsweek details the spiritual journey of Boston University professor Steve Prothero, author of the new book “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–and Doesn’t.” His beef is that while most Americans claim they are religious or spiritual, they actually know very little about the history of the views that they and others…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Vestry to Buddhism to Confusion - Chattering Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/03\/from-vestry-to-buddhism-to-confusion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Vestry to Buddhism to Confusion - Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week’s Newsweek details the spiritual journey of Boston University professor Steve Prothero, author of the new book “Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know–and Doesn’t.” His beef is that while most Americans claim they are religious or spiritual, they actually know very little about the history of the views that they and others…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/03\/from-vestry-to-buddhism-to-confusion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-05T21:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/imgs\/tout\/story\/stephen_prothero_chat.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From Vestry to Buddhism to Confusion - 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