Rating: 
Summary: Augment your bigotry for just the price of one little book!!
Review: A decent diuturnity ago, I visited a Christian booksale. {And, oh, I was a Christian at the time} A woman pointed out this book and told me how so very good of a read it was. Thus I have not freshly read it, but since it has come back into my possession I skimmed each chapter to review what it taught. With now unbiased eyes I can see that it is a handbook of bigotry and not of world religions. Though I must stop a moment and expose a certain fact so I do not appear to be defaming Fritz Ridenour. I realize that the moniker, "So What's the Difference?" does not refer to the difference between religions, but rather the difference betwixt Orthodox (fundamentalist) Christianity and all other foreign faiths. If it WERE to refer to the former, I would be disgusted beyond all recognition at the misinformation.... However, I still do not recommend this work. Regardless if you just want to know the difference between all faiths or all faiths and the Christain faith, why would you ask a fundamentalist, i.e. EXTREMELY BIASED, theologian about Islam or Buddhism? Would you ask an electrician about medicine or a dentist about carpentry? In fact, the author carried out the action of what a truth-seeker should do, that is, inquiring into the other faiths themselves. Yet he took the fruits of his work and juxtaposed them against modern Christian theology, as opposed to the original teachings of Christ and scripture, and exposed all disagreements. It is inevitable in ANY faith that many mindsets and philosophies will diverge from the pristine source, so my next question would be why compare all religious orthodoxies rather than comparing the sources? [E.G. Bible, Qur'an] If you took this path you would avoid making the mistakes of accusing brethren of disputes that are non existant. You would realize that Christ never promulgated a triumvirate deity, nor did Muhammad declare that Judas took Jesus' place on the morbid cross of Golgotha, nor that anyone did, for the Qur'an never states that Jesus was not crucified, but in actuality that only the Jews certainly did not crucify him. (In fact surahs refer to the day of Isa's (jesus') death) To see his satirical bigotedness, you need only read the captions following each chapter. "Judaism...Foundation of Christianity but Still Looking for Christ"--"Islam...How Muhammad Used the Bible"--"Christian Science--Denies Reality But cannot escape it." We must ask ourselves at this point all ready, does it appear at all that we are dealing here with a book that may be deemed objective?? Does a book that points out differences in creed do anything to produce religious tolerance? Ralph Waldo Emerson certainly had his head on straight when he declared that, "In the matter of religion, people eagerly fasten their eyes on the difference between their own creed and yours; whilst the charm of the study is in finding the agreements and identities in all the religions of humanity." But you are a Christian you say and you only believe in your sect or interpretation of Christianity? Why don't you look at your book? Christians were not to divide into opposing groups. " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 Senseless arguments should be avoided. "Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels." 2 Timothy 2:23 RSV. And how about evidence that God has also created non-Christian religions, " And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold . . ." So why was a book written on comparative religion set up like this?? i have no idea & i would not recommend this book to anyone on planet earth
Rating: 
Summary: Not much to say its like others of its kind
Review: After being forced to sit thru this awfully-slanted book in Youth Group on Sunday (yes Im A Chrisitan), I come to the conclusion that Mr Ridenour is worse than some of the Buddhists and other religous ppl he attempts to criticize. A real Christian will know that this book is judgemental and very critical it is definitely not a good source for information on religons, unless someone is as pious and narrow-minded as Ridenour.
Although the book claims to be straightforward and non-critical it is neither. From calling Muhammed (founder of Islam) someone "who used the bible" to calling Buddhism a hopeless endeavor he never fails to disgust me with his propaganda.
Just a casual glance of this book when I first saw it, told me it was slanted christian propaganda. I told my Uncle and Aunt (who run my youth group) this book is probably over-critical and their response was something like, "Well more or less its the truth." I let it go at that and sat thru this book.
Mr. Ridenour has also gotten a lot of the research on religions and what he labels as Cults wrong. For example, Islam does not think that any prophets are less equal than others, that was meant to sway Chrisitians from pursuing any other research, just another example.
I guess you cant really expect much from books like this they really are all the same. This book was basically written in the same vein as the book "The Truth About Dungeons and Dragons" by Joan Hake Robie, very ridicously written and slanted, almost to the point of being humorous.
Rating: 
Summary: It's worth a read but serves as an intro. to various beliefs
Review: As a fellow Protestant, I found the book interesting. However, I do not believe exactly the way he claims all Protestants believe. With that in mind, I decided to find people of the various religious groups he describes and ask them personally if his claims are true of their faiths. I made sure to do it in a nonjudgemental, or nonthreatening, way. Sometimes his descriptions of their belief systems are out-dated. The book will offend many as he writes what a group believes and immediately follows the desciption with "why We (Protestants) know this isn't true."
I think if you read it with an open mind and realize it is just a starting point in your search to the answer the title describes, you will find this book useful.
Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate at best, inflamatory at worst
Review: As someone who enjoys studying the various different world religions, I was hoping for an unbiased, informative look at different faiths. Instead, what I found in this book was a very biased, often incorrect view of several faiths. The author even goes so far as to accuse some churches of lying about what they believe and represent. The author simply seems to be giving his personal opinion, which is basically opposed to any faith that isn't his. I was so disgusted with this book that I threw it in the trash rather than pass it on to anyone else.
Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate at best, inflamatory at worst
Review: As someone who enjoys studying the various different world religions, I was hoping for an unbiased, informative look at different faiths. Instead, what I found in this book was a very biased, often incorrect view of several faiths. The author even goes so far as to accuse some churches of lying about what they believe and represent. The author simply seems to be giving his personal opinion, which is basically opposed to any faith that isn't his. I was so disgusted with this book that I threw it in the trash rather than pass it on to anyone else.
Rating: 
Summary: I Read This Cover to Cover
Review: At first, I thought this book looked so skewed towards Christianity that it wouldn't be very helpful in understanding other religions. As I read it, however, I found the information contrasting world religions to Christianity very helpful and even found myself looking things up in the Bible to check them out.
Well written, concise, and fascinatingly informative...Excellent work!
Rating:
Summary: This guy must be kidding
Review: Being Orthodox I was interested in what Ch. 3 "Eastern Orthodoxy" had to say about? (The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church) It would be an understatement to say I was disappointed. Judging from the positive reviews, it is obvious the non-denominational[just another protestant denomination], self-righteous, individualistic, evangelical-funadmentalist crowd is loving this book. I recommend readers check out those Bible verses that the negative reviewers offer in their reviews. Anyone interested in furthering a spiritual journey read "Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian by Jordan Bajis" and "The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way" All available at amazon.com
Rating:
Summary: Preaching to the converted
Review: Despite its claims of being an objective, non-critical comparison of major religous faiths, this book takes an Orthodox-Chritstian centric view, and shows the difference (read short-fallings) of other religions. The discussions do not centre around the differences of the other faiths, but rather where they are wrong. Once Mr Ridenour strays away from western religions (Christianity and Judaism) he really struggles to keep his mind open, and is positively patronising towards eastern religions and eastern cultures in general. Whilst these are opinions he is entitled to voice, his logic in justifying these opinions is highly flawed. Claiming that the higher levels of western scientific knowledge is the result of the dominance of Orthodox Christianity is laughable (the Greeks invented the basis of scientific discovery pre-Christianity, the church has hardly been a supporter of scientific advances during the ages, and for a large period of history, eastern cultures were well ahead of western cultures in scientific matters). More disturbingly, his use of the bible to defend his faith is very poor theological scholarship. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the bible will notice his flaws (eg quoting certain passages to support arguments, when there are equally valid passages refuting the same argument). To think that the entire Catholic philosphy can be dismissed in 8 pages using 20 biblical references is ridiculous, and ignores that the Catholic faith could easily be justified by such scant treatment. Finally, to be totally objective, the book should have examined the various schisms within 'Orthodox Christianity', and asked the hard questions about why such obvious truths he has described can lead to hundreds of different beliefs. Presenting Orthodox Christianity is some unifed religion is very misleading in the arena of comparative faiths. If you wish to learn about other faiths, there are many unbiased books on the subject. If you wish to have your faith reinforced, there must be better ways then this!
Rating:
Summary: Does its job pretty well after all these years!
Review: For a book with an unassuming title, it just does its job pretty well to explain *basic* differences between Christianity and other religions.
Don't look for in-depth comparative religions here.. and if you're not a Christian, it could cause some offense. But the author doesn't pretend to be anyone else but a Christian, and writes for a Christian audience hoping to understand better their non-Christian neighbours.
I recommend it to every Christian. It is a conversation starter!
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read For Those Pondering the Question
Review: For me, this was an easy read that gave a glimpse into other beliefs that unbelievably most people never experience! It clarified the basic differences between the faiths in a simple, straightforward approach with a summary at the end of each chapter. I would definitely recommend this, especially to fellow Protestants. It may step on some toes, but rightly so!
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