So I finished reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Christianity and I have to say I actually learned much more than I ever thought I would. I was raised in a strict Jehovah's Witness family and all of our extended family was Irish Catholic! And when I say Irish Catholic I mean at church before the priest every morning for mass Irish Catholic. Apparently a passion for faith is genetic! So put that together and I honestly didn't think there was to much left for me to learn. Both Irish Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses do their best to educate themselves on other paths - mostly so they can discredit them, but it's still an education.
So coming out of this environment and doing what research I had done on my own I was honestly surprised that there was so much left for me to take in. I will note that the book is only about 98% fact,
there are some areas where the author either didn't quite know the facts or simply had them wrong, but from what I could tell, this was minor. In the end I finished the book with a better education than I started, which was the goal.
The book explores not only the differences in beliefs from denomination to denomination but also the history and in some cases where they are heading now. As with all "Idiots" books there are a great bit of useless facts, but those are always fun to know! I mean I will never need to know that the trend of Streaking or Mooning as a form of protest was started by Quakers, but it's still neat to know!
Personally, I feel we could all do with some extra education on the major religions of our land, and this book - and those like it - are a great way to increase that education easily! If you have the opportunity to read it do so! Check with your local Library, if they don't have it, Amazon has it for just a few dollars!
i actually think i am a better person now that i knowing how streaking and mooning came to be!
ReplyDeletethank you for this post! interesting indeed!
hugs n love