Status Updates From Christianity and World Reli...

Just finished the chapter on Islam. Trust a Methodist (the author of the book) to come up with a good answer for the calls to violence in the Quran: the Christian Bible calls for all kinds of violence also.

Finished the chapter on Judaism. According to the author, many Jews wrongly expected the Messiah to be a ruler who would usher in everlasting peace. The author acknowledges the Jews got this idea from Scripture. But don't Christians agreed with that expectation also; isn't that what the Second Coming is about? Doesn't everybody agree that Jesus has, so far, not fulfilled the major prophesies for the Messiah?

We think of the Holocaust as being committed by the Nazis, but since Germany was 99% Christian at the time, we could also say that the Holocaust was committed by Christians.

Just finished the chapter contrasting Buddhism with Christianity. Next is Judaism. That should be interesting, given the evangelical reactions to the current situation in the Middle East.

This is a wonderful book. It is written from an unabashedly Christian perspective but very respectful of other faiths.