I have been getting quite an education in Protestant Christianity from the WTM boards. I have to admit that I am much more familiar with most major world religions than I am with general Christianity. I am a Christian myself, but I really only know about my specific beliefs and practices.
I had no idea before that children in many churches don't sit with their parents during the main worship service. I didn't know that contemporary Christian music was so widely used instead of hymns. I didn't know a thing about Universal Unitarians. I had no idea that Jehovah's Witnesses don't belive that Jesus Christ is divine. I didn't know that people would change churches so often to find one that fit their style and that styles within a given denomiation could vary so much from place to place.
I can tell you about Jewish practices. I could tell you about specific divisions within Islam. I've read a lot about Eastern Christianity. I'm pretty good with Christianity historically. But I have a definite gap in what I know about contemporary Christianity, and I need to fix that.
Are there any good unbiased books out there that would help me with this?
3 comments:
On resources:
I'm at a loss for contemporary Christianity beyond the 700 Club.
But as for -
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddism: Anything by Karen Armstrong. Former Catholic nun turned international writer and speaker on religions.
Judaism: Rabbi Joseph Teluskin. The easiest of his books will be Daily Book of Jewish Values and his book on Jewish Humor. Then if still interested, read Jewish Wisdom.
Try poking around www.beliefnet.com.
Bruce Feiler has some great books - Abraham; and Walking the Bible.
It's interesting for me to read about the view of LDS and subsequent bridges built between LDS and other religions.
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Amira - Now that I think of it, you could go to web sites of churches and search out LDS or Mormon (or compare those church beliefs with Islam, etc.). I just did that for the 700 Club site and found articles on LDS. Many CBC techniques use simple journalistic bias by positively presenting LDS in the first paragraphs and closing with a hard line hitter in the last paragraph that leaves a bitter taste in the readers/believers mouth.
You probably know this with your world experience - read newspapers of other countries. As our journalistic world tends to currently group Islamists, Americans are grouped as Evangelical Christians, Europeans as Secular Humanists, and so on.
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On church:
It's amazing how noisy Sacrament Meetings are! DH grew up with churches having glassed areas for parents to take children to when they got restless.
Have you ever dared to venture going to another church just for the experience?
Thanks for your suggestions. And we have attended other churches' worship services, but I've been to more Orthodox services than Protestant.
i admire your interest to understand the different variants of christianity. As an evangelical christian myself, it's hard to distinguish btw the 100s of denominations out there. More than reading, it's being about engaging one another. My friends (muslim, jew, athesist) or non labeled; it's us walking the talk that gives us distinction. I don't think there is one book that can capture contemporary christianity. Thank you for not judging, at least until you get to know one.
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