Stephen Prothero, PhD

Professor of Religion

Stephen Prothero is Professor of Religion at Boston University specializing in American religions. He received his BA from Yale College in American Studies and his MA and PhD from Harvard University in the Study of Religion. A historian of American religions, Professor Prothero has written six books, including the New York Times best-seller Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know—and Doesn’t (HarperOne, 2007), The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Indian University Press, 1996), American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003), and God is Not One: The Rival Religions that Run the World (HarperOne, 2010).

Current projects include a book, not yet under contract, based on his 2008 Noble Lectures at Harvard entitled “The Work of Doing Nothing: Wandering as Practice and Play.”