FEATURED ESSAY"Not a Christian Book": The Perils of the Amazon Book Review
By Charlotte Gordon | Published on Religion Dispatches In which the author is particularly irritated by a review of her latest book, and explains why.
Granted, it is never pleasant to have readers complain about one's book, especially when the book is approximately three days old and one is still caught up in the heady pride of publication. In addition, if one is a veteran writer (which I am), one knows what to expect: generosity from some, slingshots from others. But my book just received an irritable review that stuck in my craw.
The reviewer, Amazon pen-name "Jubilee" wrote that: [In Gordon's book] sometimes more credence is given to the Koran and non-canonical religious books [than] the Bible itself. That may be laudable from a secular standpoint, but not mine. I prefer a Christian world view. And I filter everything through that. My point is that I cannot give a positive review in terms of a Christian book. Because it is not.
Why did this bother me? Sour grapes, you might say, and maybe so, but I think the real problem is the clash between interfaith and what I call single faith politics. My position is that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity represent different pathways to the divine and that all three faiths embody important traditions and beliefs about God, worship, and how we should lead our lives. Those who espouse single faith politics hold that only one religious tradition is valid, and that the others are incorrect, and sometimes, even, evil. Sound familiar? Think James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Ann Coulter vs. Rabbi Arthur Waskow's interfaith movement, The Tent of Abraham or the Unitarian commitment to valuing all religious traditions. It is clear that Woman has become a lightning rod for the single faith/interfaith conflict embedded in current American politics and religious life. Read more |
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