Religious Knowledge

What You Need to Know

By: Deaver Brown

Narrated by: Deaver Brown

Learn about religion and America, from the 17th century through today, with 139 things to learn and more! This audiobook is meant for people interested in all religions, not just their own. It is a broad survey completed in just over an hour. It is used widely in church schools, adult education groups, and in schools that permit religious education worldwide.

Featured tracks include:

1. Introduction: Knowledge to Morality
2. Historical Emphasis on Teaching and Importance of Religion in America
3. America in the 17th and 18th Century
4. America in the 19th Century
5. America in the 20th Century
6. Where We Are Now
7. Eleven Things to Know
8. 139 Things to Learn
9. Sunday School and How to Help
10. Summary

©2009 Christina Brown (P)2009 Christina Brown

Not bad for an overview of comparative religion

I have listened to many of Deaver Brown's other audio books about startups and entrepreneurship, so I was a little surprised to see him branching out to topics like religion. I generally like the conversational style that he uses for most of his audio books, instead of reading word-for-word from an actual book. Since this one was only $1.95, I figured I would give it a shot... at least it might be entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't have an obvious bias when presenting the material. It is definitely a very brief summary of a wide variety of religions, but I found it to be a useful high-level refresher. It has been 20 years since I took a formal comparative religion class, so I can't really vouch for the accuracy of the material. Nothing was obviously wrong to me, but that might not be saying much since I'm not a religious expert. Anyway, if you like Deaver Brown's style, you may enjoy this book like I did. If you're primarily looking for a good book about comparative religions, I would probably recommend finding another more in-depth book or possibly some other reputable online resources.

Shallow & Inaccurate

The author has not done his homework and therefore suffers from the ignorance he is trying to dispel. For example, he says that the function of the Pope in Catholicism is the same as that of the Grand Revelator in Mormonism, which is an egregious error.